


Retribution, Old Peaks War

by FreelanceMem



Series: Clones of Old Peaks War [3]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:14:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23307373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreelanceMem/pseuds/FreelanceMem
Summary: The Final ChapterAurick Radlof is done recuperating from the events leading up to discovering his identity. He is not about to lie like a dog and let the Federation move on from what they had done for him. No, with his new friends, he has far bigger plans for the Federation. They will not even see it coming.
Relationships: Medic/Spy (Team Fortress 2)
Series: Clones of Old Peaks War [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1488602
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	1. Respawn

In the deathly cold of winter, it had been too much to go anywhere. Storms raged for days at a time. Breaks in between these storms lasted a few hours at most. It was barely enough time to send for supplies.

The treacherous landscape was a hell for those who wanted to survive. Any attempt at surviving was met with a cold and cruel fate. Though, this meant that intervention by somebody else was just as futile. That was unless the intervention was by a strong force.

Fearing such intervention, the project stayed as a low thing. It was barely a hope to stay under the radar while using the facility’s resources. Knowing that it was still on the power grid, somebody would notice the change in power consumption.

Still, science was a necessity. Keeping up their efforts, that was what would put them through this. It was not easy, but it had to be done.

With the little assistance they had from two scouts, a spy and a sniper, the engineer and the medic put as much effort into their work as they could manage. They knew that if they made this thing a reality, it would change the course of the war. If they managed to make this thing function like it should, it would change the world.

“Just need to tighten…this…lug…” the engineer grunted as he worked on a lug nut.

“Think you that is tight enough?” Aurick chuckled as he wiped his brow. They had been at this for hours, just as they would be every single day.

“I want to be sure,” the engineer let out a relieved breath. He gave the piece of machinery a fond pat.

It was nice to work together again. It was like the good old days when they would concoct experiments together. Between the engineer’s machinery ingenuity and medic’s genius, they were unstoppable. It was how the Federation got its hands on equipment and supplies that made the war so dangerous.

Aurick smiled as he touched the machine’s pressure gauge. While it was not an important piece, it felt very unique to him. It had been taken off of a broiler in the upstairs, something that had been used to heat the rooms there. Those rooms were now closed off, stripped of half their metal and left to rot with none of the memories of clones tortured there.

“Spring is coming,” Aurick said, gently caressing the gauge with a finger, “A week or so now. The storms should ease up.”

“Here’s hoping,” the engineer wiped his hands on his overalls.

“You guys still working?” a scout’s voice caught their attention. They both turned to see Brian looking at them. “There’s some important message on the television. You guys should come take a look.”

The medic shared a look with the engineer before they turned to follow Brian. He led the way down the hall to the old break room. Most of the monitors from the monitor room had been uninstalled to be used as scrap for their machine. However, one was spared and moved into this room. It had been wired to catch airwaves, that way they could finally catch up with what was going on with the world.

The three of them joined the sniper, the spy and the other scout. They were quiet as they watched the news anchor introduce something about to be shown. He had his hands folded and held a grave look before the cameras switched to a man standing at a podium in front of what appeared to be an open audience.

“It has been passed that peace will reign throughout the Federation,” the man at the podium said, “No more war and no more fear.” An uproar of voices clouded the audio as the audience applauded him.

“Another ploy,” the sniper growled.

As the noise died down, the speaker began again, “No more shall we uphold the violence of an old era. The time has come to set aside the votings of war of two sides. The Federation is the clear choice of the people.”

“BOOOOOO!” the scouts both cried at the monitor.

“It is my great pleasure to announce that the beginning of a new era will start on September first. It will be the era of the Federation!” the man announced proudly.

The audience roared and clouded the audio. The man was smiling slightly as he looked over his audience. He looked very pleased with himself over all of this.

“That’s bogus!” one of the scouts spat.

“Just what we need,” the sniper grumbled, “A new era of the Federation taking control.”

The engineer hissed at him and leaned forward. Apparently a question had been propositioned and the man was about to answer. They all fell silent to listen in.

“At this time, the Federation is discussing changes. Due to the change of peace, we will no longer require tools of war. Everything related to the war will be disposed of with propensity,” the man explained, “We will begin the era anew when these tools have been eradicated.”

“Tools…” he heard the engineer’s pensive voice.

“When that is done, then the people can move on in peace,” the man announced. Somebody else tried to ask a question, but the man raised a hand in refusal. “No further questions,” he barked before he left the podium.

“That’s a load of bullshit!” one of the scouts spat.

“No kidding,” the other scout agreed.

“Tools,” the engineer repeated the word.

“What about them?” Aurick inquired.

“I think he means the clones,” the engineer shifted in his seat.

“You got clones from tools?” the sniper gave the engineer a disbelieving look.

“We are _right here_ you know!” one of the scouts exclaimed.

“That’s what they are waiting on the start of their little era for,” the engineer said uneasily, “It’s why they can’t move forward. They’re eradicating the _clones_.”

“I thought he meant like guns and stuff,” Brian turned his eyes to the TV where an advertisement was playing.

“Guns and stuff?” the engineer rubbed his chin, “I think he would have mentioned guns. But…he said tools. It was vague. Maybe they ain’t getting rid of guns, because they still have to have their army.”

“Sounds about right,” the sniper nodded.

Aurick looked over at the silent clone. He was staring at nothing, as if completely zoned out. He made himself look very relaxed in a lounged position with an ankle on his knee, but Aurick could see how stiff he held himself.

“Lucien?” Aurick caught the man’s eye, “Do you have anything to say about it?”

Lucien moved his eyes slowly to the nothing he was looking at before. He took a deep breath and let it out in a slow sigh. He shifted his position, sitting up straight on the end of the couch between the armrest and the scout named Skeeter.

“It’s entirely plausible that he was vaguely referring to clones,” Lucien gestured to the engineer, “We should consider that this means our safety, as well as yours is at stake.”

“Nobody knows us from a clone,” the sniper nodded in agreement.

“So what do we do?” Skeeter got to his feet and walked around, “What are we supposed to do? We can’t stay here forever, that’s for sure.”

“Getting pretty hard to survive between storms,” Brian agreed.

“Spring is coming,” the engineer looked to Aurick, “Right doc?”

Aurick nodded in agreement, “It is around this time that the storms will die down. We will have a better chance of moving out of the mountains.”

“To what? To where?” Skeeter demanded.

“Relax Skeet,” Brian said softly.

“Our work’s nearly done,” the engineer explained, “If we can get it loaded into a truck, then I think we can make a break for it in two weeks.”

“That should be enough time for us to move it down to the parking area,” Aurick agreed.

“Hold on!” the sniper sat up on the edge of the couch, “You want to fit that thing you’re working on in the mobile? There’s no way you’re fitting that in there! You’re not ruining my truck!”

“Nah nah,” the engineer waved off his concerns, “We found a vehicle in the parking garage.”

“Well, there were more vehicles. None of them were functioning. We just used the working parts to make one that functions,” Aurick explains.

“Holy crap,” Skeeter muttered.

“So, what are we going to do?” Brian spoke up, “You know…with it?”

“We don’t even know what it does!” Skeeter added, “Or if it works. Does it work? Have you tested it?”

Aurick shared a look with the engineer before rising to his feet. He turned to address them all, “It has been a long time coming, but it’s finally ready for a reveal.” He cleared his throat, ready to continue.

“So? What? What does it do?” the sniper pressed.

“It respawns the human body!” Aurick announced, unable to stop his proud grin from spreading across his face.

“Respawn? What?” the sniper narrowed his eyes at Aurick.

The engineer got to his feet and left the room in a hurry. Aurick decided to continue with his explanation. If the engineer did not want to help, that was his prerogative.

“This machine will make it impossible to kill us,” he explained, “It takes a scan of your body and connects to a device implanted into your chest. If it is place closest to the heart, I think that would be best. The device will read for signs of life and-”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Brian leaped to his feet, “Alright, I didn’t sign up for any implanted devices! Medic, you’re gonna have to come up with something different. I’m _not_ undergoing that.”

“No offense, but that seemed a bit ridiculous,” Skeeter added, “And there’s not really a safe way to test it.”

“Nonsense! I have already come up with the perfect first patient!” the medic insisted.

“The perfect first patient?” the sniper turned pale, sitting in a position where he was ready to bolt.

“Doc…you didn’t…experiment on one of us…without us knowing…did you?” Skeeter asked hesitantly.

Aurick decided to laugh this off. He walked over and patted the scout on his opposite shoulder, “I have done nothing of the sort!”

The attention of the room turned to the doorway as the engineer walked in. In one hand he carried a device. The other arm was cradling a red fluffy animal. Like a gunshot, Lucien was suddenly out of his seat and on his feet.

“Everybody, meet Lucy,” the engineer used the hand cradling the cat to try and pet her. The eager animal tried to rub her ear against his fingers.

“Where the hell did you get a cat?!” Brian exclaimed.

Skeeter laughed, “Did you freaking steal a cat?”

“Not at all,” the engineer protested.

“This cat is what you would call an abandoned stray,” Aurick informed them, “Previously feral but friendly enough to indicate that she was previously with an owner.”

“And you thought to bring her here?” Lucien spoke so loudly that it surprised Aurick. When he looked at the man, he was further surprised to see more emotion on his face. He did not want to write it off as fear, as he doubted Lucien was afraid of a little ginger cat.

“Well, she was pretty lonely and hungry,” the engineer said, doubling his attention on the cat in his arm, “Besides, doc found a way to make her stay useful.”

“Indeed,” Aurick reached over to take the device from the engineer’s hand. While the engineer used his now free hand to pet the cat, Aurick turned to their audience. “This little device is what we have installed into Lucy’s chest. It is monitoring her breathing, her heart, and every other indication of life aside from the brain.”

“I was gonna say,” the sniper said, “If you’re measuring life, I think it might be hard to read a dumb animal’s mind.”

“Don’t be an ass,” Brian snapped at him.

“Since it is installed in her, I have confidence that it will read her death,” Aurick pulled the syringe and needle from his pocket. The syringe was already filled with liquid, he only needed to connect the needle for injection. He popped off the needle cap and turned to inject it into the cat. She growled and squirmed in the engineer’s secure arms, trying to escape.

“No! Don’t kill the cat!” suddenly, Skeeter grabbed his elbow and tore him away from the cat. It was too late anyways, as she would be dead in a few minutes. Aurick watched as she quickly became drowsy and closed her eyes.

“No,” Skeeter whined, “Poor kitty!”

“Relax,” Aurick discarded of the needle and syringe before proceeding to the door, “Leave that here and follow me.”

“Poor kitty,” he heard Skeeter muttering as they all followed him from the room and down the hallway.

He swung the door to his and the engineer’s creation open wide. When they approached, they were clearly expecting nothing. He smiled at them, waiting for the moment to come. He did not even look himself, he just watched as their expressions changed to a mix of horror and shock. He could already see the ginger cat strutting out like nothing ever happened.

“See?” he said, “It works perfectly!”

“Doc…” the sniper swallowed, “What are you going to do with something like that?”

“Something like this?” Aurick looked back to the machine and snickered, “I’m going to rectify everything!”


	2. Tell Me About Your Passions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucien just wants to hear Aurick talk.  
> Aurick is not sure how to deal with the relations they have.

It felt cramped to be on the road again. For some reason, the spy chose to follow Aurick into the respawn truck with the engineer. Though the spy stayed quiet, it was a little strange. Aurick was stuck in the middle seat, chatting with the engineer, who had already cooked up a few changes he wanted to make with the next model.

Carter McInery had a full transformation since taking the serum. He did not bring it up again, he was so full of life. He liked having a full head of brown hair, but what Aurick saw as most important was that passionate fire. It was beyond how he acted when they first worked together. It must have been the kind of youthfulness he had when he first started out. Now, with all of his experiences and knowhow, Carter was in full pursuit of perfection. He wanted to reshape their model into the next best thing, better than their best.

Aurick delighted in Carter’s explanations. He gave his own thoughts and ideas here and there. After all, this project was a team effort, and not meant for only one man to try out. It probably would have been difficult to keep up with Carter, if he himself had not tested the serum to be sure of its effects before giving some to Carter. He thought he must have taken less, because his own transformation seemed far less than Carter’s.

Aurick kept that constant awareness of somebody at his other shoulder. He was only talking to Carter. What they were discussing was far beyond what the spy could understand. Still, he could not help but feel that presence there.

Eventually, Carter grew tired and it was time to switch. Aurick dropped a hint for the spy to go with him to ride in the mobile home, but the spy said nothing. Instead, while Carter went to sleep in the mobile, the spy returned to the respawn truck.

Driving with only the company of the spy, the respawn truck’s cab was quiet for a long time. Even when he thought about talking to the spy, he could not think about anything to talk about. They had nothing in common. They may have had history, as little as he remembered it, but it was not something Aurick was willing to discuss. So, he just remained quiet, with his attention on the road as he followed the mobile living space.

It must have been an hour, before the spy finally spoke, “Doesn’t that hill look like a face?”

Aurick blinked then squinted at the landmark. Even squinting, he did not see what he was talking about, so he shook his head. He turned his attention back to the safety of the road.

“What do you think will happen…if more clones come here? I mean, if they came where civilians are?” the spy inquired.

Aurick raised an eyebrow at him, “Would it be any different from us?”

Lucien shook his head, “I don’t know.” His fingers absentmindedly tugged on his scarf, seeing the comfort of it.

The worn old thing was only familiar on the spy. It was almost a defining piece of the man, like General with his helmet, Skeeter with his ball cap and Carter with his goggles. Looking again, Aurick could maybe remember packing the thing, prepping himself for a transfer from a moderate location to the deathly cold mountains of Randal Moser’s cloning facility.

It was so long ago he barely remembered it. It made the memory feel like the scarf he had was a different one altogether. But, when he squinted very hard, he could see the memory again of wrapping the spy up in warmth to maybe send him off to safety.

“Perhaps they’re too hardened from war,” Lucien sighed, “Perhaps they would not see it as escape and just another entrapment. I’m not sure. That is why I wanted your opinion on the matter.”

Lucien finally turned his head to look at Aurick. Their eyes met and silence fell on the cab. Aurick turned his eyes back to the road, just to be safe. He could feel the spy clone’s eyes on him though. He breathed carefully as he searched for something to talk about. They had nothing in common.

“Why don’t you tell me about the project you were talking about? The one you were discussing with McInery,” Lucien requested.

Aurick glanced at him sideways, “Nah.”

There was silence again. Aurick was hoping that Lucien might just turn back to the window and be silent again. It would be easier to do his job of driving without a distraction anyways.

“You don’t trust me,” it was a statement of fact rather than an inquiry. Still, Aurick picked up a hint of disappointment in those words.

“You’ve proven you’re not going to stab any of us in the back,” Aurick protested, “You have no reason to do so. I trust you well enough.”

“But you don’t trust me to tell me,” he could feel Lucien’s pleading eyes staring at the side of his face.

Aurick looked at him, “It’s not so much about trust…it’s just…boring science things. You wouldn’t understand it.”

“Gabin spent years listening to science, mathematics, political jargon, social drama and everything under the sun that he did not understand,” Lucien said, “I have listened to enough of your science to know that you’re passionate about it.”

Aurick met his eyes and almost regretted it. It was disconcerting to talk about Gabin, now that the truth was out. He knew about the truth for a long time, and had hidden it from the clones. Now they knew what happened, and worse off was that they all knew it was _him_ who did it.

“Would it be so bad to…talk to _me_ about what you’re passionate about?” Lucien asked.

Aurick turned back to the road, “I suppose not.”

Lucien shrugged at him, “I’m all ears if you want to talk.”

Aurick bit the inside of his lip. It was easy to talk to Carter though. Carter could not only understand what Aurick was talking about, but he could also give feedback.

Lucien sighed, “We used to talk, you and I. I know things have changed for you, but I still miss it.”

Aurick continued chewing on his lip. He was not even sure how to open up talking about that with somebody who was not in the know about the scientific value of his work. He wondered if Lucien could even understand how he felt about his own work.

“You were telling the engineer about…how you plan on making a fuel that lasts beyond what oil can for the capacitor?” Lucien said, almost encouragingly.

“Ah,” Aurick cleared his throat, “Well, I have an idea for a potential formula. It is a mix that could potentially produce more energy per gram used than oil. So it would be more productive, last longer and increase efficiency of the machine.”

“That’s fascinating,” Lucien said, “Please, tell me more.”

Aurick gave him a frown, “That is what people say when they are not actually interested in what is being said.”

“I don’t have anything else to say,” Lucien argued, “I want to hear you talk about your passion. I don’t know much about science, but I want to support you. Let me.”

“It doesn’t help,” Aurick shook his head, “You don’t know anything that I’m talking about.”

“I know that you have an idea that you’re passionate about. I know it’ll produce more energy per gram than oil. I understand it’ll be more efficient and long lasting,” Lucien stated firmly, “I am listening.”

Aurick sighed, “I don’t know. What else do you want me to say?”

“You talk to the engineer,” Lucien pleaded.

“Carter is an old friend,” Aurick replied, “We worked together. He was…always a kind coworker.”

“And you were sweet on him for a time. I know,” Lucien folded his arms and turned to look out the window.

Aurick felt his face burn as he tried not to swerve the steering wheel in a panic. His heart started racing despite his attempt to calm down. He took steady even breaths all the while.

“What did you say?” Aurick asked, trying his best to stay calm.

“I’m not implying anything,” Lucien responded, “It was apparent back then then you were very interested in the engineer but respected him with distance.”

Aurick looked at him from the corner of his eye. He was not sure what to do. He was not sure what to say. If he could say anything, he wanted to say that it was none of Lucien’s business. And perhaps to deny it.

“And since you took the serum, you’ve been as you were then…as if everything at the front did not happen. As if everything following did not crush you. And back to smiling again,” Lucien went on.

“What? The serum?” Aurick flinched. Had it been that obvious? He was sure he did not take half the dose that the engineer had taken.

“I’ve known you almost all of my actual life. And I have memories of life before my life,” Lucien said, “And…I’m glad it helped you.”

“What?” Aurick could not think of anything better to say. He should have told him off. He should have said for the spy to shut up.

“I’m glad it’s rejuvenated your confidence,” Lucien stated, “You’re the man…the…man you…could be…the best example I suppose. You lost your edge. You got lost to your temper. You lost your passion. I guess I’m just jealous hearing your passion pour out to him when he’ll never appreciate it.”

Aurick took a careful breath. He almost forgot that this was the same clone who had admitted some form of liking to him before. Though, that was back when everybody thought he was a clone. That was when _he_ thought of himself as a clone. Even so, there was something that Lucien held for him back before he was sent to the front.

“Like you do?” he kept his eyes on the road, not daring to see how Lucien responded. His curiosity was nagging at him though.

He did not see much of his reaction. But he could tell that Lucien leaned his elbow on the door and pressed his cheek against his fist. He did not say anything for a long while. Silence fell on the vehicle again, with only the hum of the engine to accompany them.

Aurick tried to focus on the road ahead, but he could not help feeling lost in his thoughts for a time. It was different telling these things to the spy clone than it was telling these things to the original Carter McInery. Carter was sometimes a bit talkative man himself, and he usually had something to input about whatever Aurick talked about.

Spy was different. Even the original spy was different. This spy was so much more different. Aurick was not even sure how to treat this spy at times. Not that he would be unfriendly towards him, as Lucien had already proven he was a loyal and trustworthy friend. But spy had feelings for him, feelings that Aurick did not know what to do with.

“I never meant to lead you on,” Aurick said calmly. He kept his eyes focused on the road.

“What do you mean?” Lucien’s head whipped around, “You never led me on. What are you talking about?”

“I mean…” his heart thumped loudly in his chest as he tried to think reasonably. It had been a long time since he talked about matters of the heart with anybody. “I never meant…for any of this…this affection you have towards me…”

“It’s my own problem,” Lucien assured him, “I haven’t asked you to feel any certain way about me. I am not asking you to accept my affection. I just want your friendship.”

“That’s a boldfaced lie,” Aurick stated. His voice was shakier than he had intended it to be.

Lucien sighed loudly, “Maybe so. Maybe I want more. That doesn’t mean I want to ruin a friendship. I-”

“If you cannot have the man, you’ll have the friend? Is that it?” Aurick quickly cut in.

“I…suppose that would be…the perspective,” Lucien replied hesitantly.

“Let me clarify something for you,” Aurick said sternly, “It comes from experience. When you start wanting somebody, unless you find a way to stop wanting them, you can’t have the friend. It never works. You’re just bound to get hurt. I don’t want to hurt you, but that’s just the truth.”

“Experience, huh?” was Lucien’s response.

“Yes!” Aurick barked.

“Hmmph,” Lucien shook his head, “Then perhaps you should consider applying your thoughts to your relationship with Carter.”

“What? I- That’s different!” Aurick exclaimed. He felt the hair on his neck and arms stand on end as his core began to burn.

“Why?” Lucien questioned, “Because he’s heterosexual? Because you were friends before? Hmm?”

“I…you’re making this hard to just draw boundaries!” Aurick barked.

“I will respect your boundaries, doctor,” Lucien said in a tone that made Aurick think the man might be close to tears, “Even if they were to keep me far away, I will respect your boundaries.”

“Good!” Aurick spat, “Do that!”

“I am only saying that you are advising a lack of friendship about a situation that you yourself may have,” Lucien noted.

“Carter is different, and I’m not abandoning that!” Aurick growled.

“I’m not telling you to,” Lucien argued, “It’s your own logic that has turned on you.”

The cab was quiet for a minute. Aurick tried to keep his mind and eyes on the road. It was difficult though. He thought about how he felt about Carter. It was not love or anything like that. He would never get down on a knee and confess anything to the man. Even if he were gay, Aurick suspected he would not have the gall to go so far, not when his feelings could pass for nothing more than lust.

He began to worry. His friendship with Carter had been a good start to turning a new leaf. He had regained not only his youthful energy but that spark of passion that enlightened him towards new ideas. It was a spark he had been missing all through the years following the souring of his relationship with Randal Moser.

“You don’t know anything about our relationship,” Aurick mumbled.

“Maybe not,” Lucien admitted, “But I know I want to be your friend.”

The cab fell silent again. The lights came on as the darkness set. Behind him, he could see the big mobile living quarters flashing lights at him as the others decided to pull over. They were probably aiming for a break and a change in drivers.

As he climbed out of the truck, he wondered how much truth lay in Lucien’s words. Aurick himself wanted nothing more than friendship from Carter though. That was different from Lucien, who wanted much more from Aurick. It was not that Lucien demanded anything from him though.

“Hey doc! Could you use some company?” Skeeter approached him.

“Perhaps,” Aurick sighed.

“I was just thinking, you know…cause you’re probably bored of talking to spy,” the scout jested.

“I could…probably use the company,” Aurick admitted. It would be easier to get through the night driving with the scout clone talking his ear off, rather than silence with the spy.

As the vehicles loaded up, Aurick looked around. He had expected to see the spy getting into the respawn truck with him. However, he was surprised to see the man saunter to the other truck. He had a slow and almost tired look as he climbed in. Oh no, he thought. Lucien might have overheard what the scout had said.

When he climbed into the truck, he stared at the steering wheel. He did not want to create a confrontation, but he was starting to feel frustrated. He wanted to go to the other truck and demand that Lucien return to the respawn truck. All Lucien wanted was a little attention, and perhaps he deserved a little of that. At the same time, he wanted to yell at him, tell him how frustrated it made him to feel this conflict with the spy clone.

When Skeeter climbed into the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt, he was gabbing about something that Aurick was not paying attention to. He did not even seem to take notice on whether Aurick was paying attention or not. He was just talking to talk, to be heard, just like every other scout.

A year or so ago, he had stronger feelings for this scout clone. He had become friends with him during their time on enemy turf. He remembered it well and regretted his behavior. He wished he could go back and change it. He wished he had the nerve to even bring it up to him and tell him how sorry he was that he acted that way.

There had been a time when Aurick started to acknowledge this scout. He had been a very important person to him. He made his heart pound like no man had done since Randal. And as much as he put it aside, he could not help but think those feelings gave him bias about his own actions. He should have been a better person to this man he calls a friend. If he was going to be better to the spy, then he would have to start with the scout.

“Scout…I want…I want to talk…” Aurick started up the truck as he watched the other truck take the lead. He turned the wheel to follow behind.

“Alright! What do you want to talk about?” Skeeter inquired. He had that cheery demeanor like he had no idea there was a grave tone in his voice.

“I wanted to talk about…back when…we were behind enemy lines,” he glanced at the scout clone sideways.

The man had lost his smile. His brow was a little bit furrowed. His voice sounded a little more concerned, which made him seem worried when he said, “Yea?”


	3. Connecting the Broken Pieces

“What I’m trying to say is…” Aurick kind of lost his thought as he glanced at Skeeter. The scout had been so uncharacteristically quiet during his speech. Yet the man had his eyes trained to Aurick like he was the most adept listener in the world. “I’m sorry.”

Skeeter made a gesture, like it was nothing. He was quiet as he turned his attention to the road. The cab fell deathly silent for a while. It was almost frightening. Aurick thought he could hear his own heart pumping blood through his veins due to the silence. The hum of the truck did not help much, it was white noise that gave him nothing.

“I…I know this is off topic,” Skeeter finally broke the silence, “But it’s been on my mind a lot lately. Especially since…you know…we know you’re Aurick now.”

Aurick was silent, listening as the scout spoke. There was a minute of silent hesitation though. He hoped this would be something minor.

“I was wondering…um…what…what the…what the original scout was apologizing for?” Skeeter inquired hesitantly.

Aurick thought back to the day they met the original Skeeter. That had been back at a weapons facility in a city. He remembered the original Skeeter not looking quite himself. He had gotten much older and looked worse for wear because of it. Sure the engineer and sniper had gotten older, but neither of them showed that age the way the scout had. In fact, despite looking old for his age back when he was young, the sniper already looked pretty young for his age now.

_Skeeter let out a half-hearted chuckle. It wounded strange. It was not a happy-go-lucky sort of attitude. He was not the bubbly man with all the bravado of a soldier. In fact he looked depressing._

_“I’m uh…” Skeeter hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s me, I just…people get old and change. You know?” He raised his head to meet medic’s gaze. “I know you’re a clone. I know you’ve escaped. I’m not sure from where, but…” He paused, glancing around the bush. He seemed to expect somebody to come down this way already. “If it were me, I would be trying to escape a thousand times. I get it.”_

_“You’re going to turn us in?” the medic tensed._

_His mind raced with thoughts about all of this. He kicked himself mentally at realizing only now that the original scout would clearly be able to identify them. He would know better than any civilian of who they truly were._

_He thought he should be taking advantage of the distance from civilians and staff. His body would not move. His feet would not get up and run. He should run, but it was just getting later and later with his feet not moving._

_Skeeter put his hands on his hips and diverted his gaze elsewhere, “I guess I’ll have to do some clean up. You know, gotta convince some people that you’re not really a clone. You know? But…I’m not gonna turn you in.”_

_There was a long pause. Medic felt he should be speaking at this point. But what was there to say? He was not sure what defense he could even give. Perhaps this was a point when he should have thanked him for it._

_“You don’t seem to have caused any trouble so far,” Skeeter went on, “And…you know…they may say all that stuff about you guys being produced for fighting…but like…all that junk is bogus.”_

_“You think it’s bogus?” one of the scouts spoke up. Medic flinched and turned to see both scout clones peering around the bush curiously._

_“Well…yea!” Skeeter gestured. His body seemed to have picked up the memory of who he was as his body language became more aggressive. “You guys are me. Like, you’re not me. But you are me. You have my memories from the scan. But uh…well…if you’re really meant to replace me then you’re the same as me, right?”_

_“I think that’s the basic gist of it, yea,” Brian said._

_“You guys are like me,” Skeeter shrugged, “You’re…human.”_

_“Yea…that’s…” the clone Skeeter clicked his tongue as he pondered his next words, “I can’t blame people for being scared. But I don’t think I felt so human before getting here.”_

_The original Skeeter flinched when they heard a noise. He peered around the bush to see what was going on. He turned back to the medic this time._

_“Look…you know I made mistakes. We both know I made mistakes. I fucked up really bad…I’m…I’m sorry,” he offered these words with his hands outstretched and his palms up, “I fucked up. I betrayed the team, and…I have never been able to live that down.”_

_“What is he talking about?” Brian whispered._

_“I don’t know,” clone Skeeter whispered in return._

_The original Skeeter looked the medic in the eyes firmly, “I don’t know if you remember…maybe it was after the scan. I’m really sorry though. And…I know this doesn’t fix anything, but I’m not making the same mistake again.”_

Aurick shook the memory out of his head. It did not happen too long ago. It was still fresh in his mind as if it happened last week. Both of the scouts had been there to witness the apology. Neither of them seemed to know or understand what it was for though.

It made sense now, in hindsight. Skeeter thought he was a clone, and the clones apparently did not remember anything beyond the scan. Being the original meant he did know what it meant. He did know what was for. He was just not in the headspace to process it back then.

“Doc?” Skeeter pressed.

Aurick sighed, “Skeeter did some shady things.”

“I got the gist of that,” the scout pressed.

“I suppose it just kept spiraling out of control after the cloning project went underway,” Aurick explained as he thought back on the days when his team was betrayed. It all happened so long ago, he wondered if he even remembered it that well anymore. “He became the face of the campaigns,” he went on, “Everything from newspaper articles to TV spots and even a meeting with the nation’s leaders. All of it got to his head and he began spitting more words than he could handle. Words twisted into lies…”

“He…he lied?” scout’s tone sounded so sincerely upset that Aurick’s head whipped around to look at him. The scout was looking at him intently. His eyes almost seemed to gleam.

“He…” Aurick turned his attention back to the road. He needed to focus on not driving off road into the harsh terrain. “He slandered us. Each one of the team was given a unique lie. Even the spy was slandered. And he went on and on and on…until…”

“Until what?” Skeeter interrupted him.

“Until we were considered unfit for society,” Aurick explained dejectedly. It hurt to think how cruel it was to be judged so harshly. “We were not to be seen by the common public as anything more than faces of the war.”

“What? But you were the originals! Not clones!” Skeeter protested.

“The thoughts they have about clones did not come out of the cloning process,” Aurick argued, “It came out of what he said of us. We were painted as…violent men. We could not show our faces to the public. So…well…I don’t know much about the others, but I became secluded to my research in the end.”

“Oh…” was all the scout had to say.

“That’s how it went,” he sighed, “An anti-climactic action. Not something he did very suddenly. It just…escalated things…I guess.”

Scout sighed, “I’m sorry.”

“What? Why?” Aurick looked at the other man.

“I’m sorry about…that happening,” Skeeter explained.

“It’s not your fault,” Aurick assured him, “Don’t apologize.”

“But…I mean…somebody should! Like…he didn’t know he was apologizing to the real Aurick…but he should have to do it again knowing it’s you. You know? It’s a matter of principle. I mean, I get it now why you hate scout clones so much. I would too if that-”

Aurick stepped on the brake. He did not know why he did. He released the gas pedal and depressed the brake. The change in speed was so sudden that Skeeter completely cut off.

“That isn’t- It’s not- You aren’t- Don’t try-” he had so many things to say that they all wanted to come out of Aurick’s mouth at once.

“D-doc? What are you trying to say? And please don’t kill us!” Skeeter pleaded.

Aurick took a deep breath as he moved his foot back to the gas pedal. He took a minute to think. He felt even worse about what happened at the frontlines, hearing this from Skeeter. He did not want to think about what he was considering back then.

He took a breath and said, “There were a lot of things that happened…but that isn’t something you need to worry about. Those lies were his lies, the original Skeeter’s lies. You’re not him. You’re your own person. You always have been.”

There was quiet in the cab as Aurick continued driving. It took a few minutes before he realized that the mobile was out of view. He looked around the spacious highway, but he did not have a clear view with the snow blowing down.

“Um…doc? I think we’re lost,” Skeeter said hesitantly.

“Yes, I think we are,” Aurick groaned as he realized that they were not in possession of a map either.


	4. Coup D'état

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aurick is tired, but even in this haze he has a passionate idea.

Pulling into the gas station, Aurick was relieved to see the familiar live-in mobile. He parked the truck and gave a heavy sigh. He was so tired. He was tired of driving. He was tired of thinking. He was just plain tired.

“Hey, you want me to drive?” Skeeter offered.

“Right now, I just want to check in with the others,” he rubbed his face with a yawn.

“You look real tired,” Skeeter commented.

“I am,” Aurick agreed.

“Then why don’t you let me drive?” Skeeter asked.

“Let’s worry about that later,” Aurick climbed out of the truck and hurried over to meet the others. There was a light on inside the vehicle and he recognized a silhouette with a small ember dimly shining on his face.

He aimed his stride for the door. When he touched its handle though, a hand touched his shoulder. “Are you alright?” Lucien asked softly.

“I’m fine,” he pulled the door open to step inside. His eyes were bombarded by brilliant light. He winced against the pain as he looked around at who was there.

“Oh hey,” Brian greeted him with a wave. He was seated on the couch by the sniper, who was twiddling a toothpick between his fingers. “You guys make it alright? We lost you a ways back. Wasn’t sure if you were going to catch up or not. Pulling over and waiting was engineer’s idea.”

When he met the sniper’s eyes, he was a little taken aback. The man had a look about him. Something was on his mind, something important. Aurick had no idea what it was, but judging that look in the man’s eye, he was certain it was not a light-hearted topic.

Aurick let out a low groan. He could not handle whatever was on the sniper’s mind. He could not handle any heavy discussion. He barely felt stable enough to stay on his feet.

“I need sleep,” he grumbled.

“I can take the next shift driving the respawn truck,” Skeeter popped up behind him. He flinched in surprise, turning to face the doorway.

Behind Skeeter, the engineer was approaching the door, “Alright, if we’re all ready, then we can get going.”

“Right,” the sniper rose to his feet and proceeded to the cab to drive the mobile.

The engineer put a hand over his face as he yawned, “Could use some sleep.”

“Get some rest,” Skeeter patted the engineer’s shoulder as he stepped through the door.

“Where’re you going?” the engineer inquired.

“I’m going to drive the other truck,” Skeeter informed him.

“You didn’t sleep did you?” the engineer turned to Aurick for the answer. All he could do was shrug in response. It was not as if he had thought to tell the young clone to get some rest. The engineer turned back to Skeeter, “You rest. Spy’s done enough sleeping to make the drive.”

“Oh…right…okay,” Skeeter hesitated, “I’ll just…” Skeeter glanced around the living quarters. He had a look of confusion, like he was not sure what he should be doing with himself. “You know what? I’ll go keep Lucien company.”

“You do that,” the engineer yawned as he proceeded to the bed.

Aurick grunted in frustration. He should have made a move for the bed first. He was not a fan of sleeping on the floor or the couch. The bed was not luxurious by any stretch of the imagination, but it was far better than alternatives.

The engineer looked up at him from his task of removing his boots, “What you standing around for? You look like the walking dead.”

“Never mind that,” Aurick shook his head, “I’m trying to decide whether to fight you for the bed or accept the couch.”

Brian hopped up off the couch, jumping straight to his feet and straightening his back. He looked to the other two as if he was afraid he might be the next person to get in a fight. When Aurick considered it, he realized that with lack of experience and physical training, Brian was the weakest among them and would be the first to lose a fight. Brian was also not unaware of this very important fact when it came to the topic of fighting.

“We don’t have to fight,” the engineer assured him as he set his boots aside, “We can share. The bed’s big enough, don’t you think?”

Aurick’s face became flush as he considered the bed. It was definitely sizeable enough. He had made do with smaller arrangements before. But sleeping next to a heterosexual man who was very aware of Aurick’s sexuality did not sound like a promisingly comfortable arrangement.

A tired part of his mind played with thoughts of cuddling. It reminded him of how handsome the engineer was. Memory that at some point he had some feelings for this man made those thoughts worse.

He shook away these thoughts with an awkward giggle, “I’ll just take the couch.”

“Didn’t think you were scared of me,” the engineer chuckled with a wry smirk across his face. It was that lopsided grin, twisted to one side in a silly quaint way.

Aurick shook his head vigorously, wishing his face did not feel so hot. It was not as if the man had invited him for anything actually promiscuous. His tired mind was just playing around with the invitation to share the bed.

“It’s nothing we haven’t done before,” the engineer climbed up onto the bed and scooted farther onto it, “But if you’d prefer the couch, be my guest.”

Brian’s shrugging caught his eye. When he looked at the scout clone, the man looked a little frightened. “Doesn’t seem like…uh…to bad an arrangement. Engie doesn’t hurt anybody,” he offered.

Aurick sighed and rolled his eyes. He sat down to remove his boots. His mind was being silly. He would just turn away from the engineer and sleep in a position where they were least likely to touch. He set his boots out of the way and climbed up onto the bed.

As soon as he was on the bed, he turned to face away from the engineer. He took a minute to adjust his clothing for comfort. He removed his glasses, setting them just within reach. He laid his head on a pillow with a tired yawn. As if on cue, Brian turned off the interior light and the vehicle’s engine started up.

“G’night guys,” Brian called up to them. The engineer mumbled a response, but Aurick remained silent, trying to concentrate on falling asleep faster.

The truck’s rumble was a comforting lull. At first the movements were disturbing, stirring his body to be more awake. After the truck got onto the highway, the movement became a comforting sensation. It was like being rocked as a small child.

“You remember Coaltown?” the engineer’s voice cut through the silence in a soft breathy tone.

“Hmmph? The place? I remember,” Aurick replied quietly. His vocal cords felt weak now, relaxing after thoughts of sleep.

“Remember that bunk soldier wanted us to use? Whole rickety place was a ticking time bomb,” the engineer chuckle.

“I…don’t actually remember that,” Aurick admitted. Most of what he remembered of Coaltown was the fighting.

“Ah…” the engineer sighed, “I was going to say, just pretend this is Coaltown and we’re hunkered in respawn with the others.”

Aurick opened his eyes and stared hard at the blur in front of him. He tried to think if he could remember Coaltown. It was so long ago that it was hard to summon up the memory.

“I think I used to fall asleep much faster,” Aurick spoke up, “If we slept in beds or rolled out cots, then I can’t remember because it wasn’t so important. It was so long ago.”

“You remember all that science stuff,” the engineer argued, “You remember being you.”

“I remember a lot of things,” Aurick nodded, “And I’ve forgotten a lot of things. I thought I was a clone. How do you go from being yourself to thinking you’re a clone? Of course you forget things.”

The engineer sighed loudly, “I guess I’ve just had a lot of time to think about it. Decades of just avoiding the government has left me with a lot of time to think about the past. Those were some good times.”

Aurick clenched the blanket beneath him. A feeling bubbled up in him. A sensation blurted out, “Some of us spent those decades living what you call the _good times_ in a vain attempt at living.”

The engineer fell silent. They both fell silent. Aurick was not sure he should have said that. He was not certain what he meant by it. It was something that bubbled out of him without much thought or consideration.

It was true though. For all of those decades, while the sniper and the engineer had been in this mobile truck driving around and avoiding the government, Aurick had been on the frontlines. For all of that time, he had been surviving. He barely survived at that. He would have even disappeared without anybody knowing what had happened to him, what had actually happened to Aurick Radlof.

“The past is in the past,” Aurick whispered, “It’s time to look forward.”

“That’s hard,” the engineer immediately replied.

“What?” Aurick turned to try and look at the other man. All he could see was a blurry blob on the bed next to him, “How?”

“When you’ve lived your life one way…it’s hard to accept another. I can’t see a future,” the engineer explained, “Government’s changed. War has changed. People have changed. How do you see a future in that?”

“Hmmph,” Aurick laid down on his back, staring at the blur of a ceiling. He had not thought about whether he saw a future or not. He had not been thinking about five, ten or twenty years down the road. For the past years he had been thinking only of the here and now.

His past self was not that way. Everything had to be planned out. His time with Moser had been planned out. His work with the clones had been planned out. His work with the youth serum had been planned out. He had foreseen a comfortable life for himself in all of that. It had all gone so wrong in some hitch in the plans.

“Times change,” Aurick mumbled, “It’s time to change.”

“What’s that?” he could see the engineer moving next to him, but he was not sure what he was doing.

“Hmm…” perhaps it was the blur of the blank ceiling above him that allowed his mind’s eye to see Coaltown so clearly at the moment. He remembered the fighting very well. They fought and won because they were strong mercenaries. They prevailed because they worked as a team.

Coaltown had been the last place before Old Peaks. That had been the last place where anything made any sort of sense. At the time, they thought they were leaving the nonsense that the soldier had created for something a little more reasonable. He remembered Old Peaks having beds. He remembered Old Peaks having more materials. But Old Peaks never made any actual sense, when it came down to what happened.

Back in Coaltown, everything had been simple. They were mercenaries and that was it. Their future was fighting. Their plan was to make it to the next day, which was not hard for them. They made it through each step and reach the next fight with full force and fervor.

When they relocated to Old Peaks everything had changed. It did not make sense. They were not military personnel. They were not heroes. They were not soldiers or weapons to be used to a government’s disposal.

“Do you remember Old Peaks?” Aurick asked.

“Do I remember Old Peaks,” the engineer grumbled in a disconcerting manner, “Can’t forget the mess that started that whole war.”

Aurick sighed, “We were just mercenaries then.”

“We’re just mercenaries now,” the engineer argued, “And barely that. We don’t have any work. I don’t reckon how we’re gonna get the gas to keep dragging your respawn truck along.”

“We weren’t an army prepared to take down a governmentally internal coup d’état turned inside out for the sake of populace perception,” Aurick sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was so tired, but now his mind was spinning with thoughts.

“What? What are you talking about?” the engineer asked.

Aurick reached over to put his glasses on. He looked to the engineer with clear vision. “I think it’s time to start a coup d’état,” he explained, “One on the outside. One that’s prepared. One that’ll end the war.”

“I don’t think that’ll work,” the engineer, “Besides, why would you wanna do that. What do you care about civilian life?”

Aurick grunted, “You’ve lived closer to civilians than me. I don’t care about them.”

“Alright, then why do you care?” the engineer asked, “One miracle machine isn’t going to turn six men into an army.”

“We have an army,” Aurick smiled as his mind raced through all of the people that would fight to take down the government who put them through hell. “We just have to go and get it.”

“The hell are you talking about?” the engineer finally sat up. He fixed Aurick with a stern look.

Aurick smiled at him, “I spent the past decade fighting a useless war for this government to keep power balanced as it has. I’d like to topple that down.”

The engineer grimaced, “I still don’t see that as a possibility.”

“You’re not thinking of the bigger picture,” Aurick could feel his smile growing wider, “I’m one man who’s suffered in this war. There’s plenty more who just want to be the mercenaries they thought they were when they came into this world.”

“A coup needs a leader to take on the governmental role,” the engineer argued.

“Fuck the politics!” Aurick spat, “Let anarchy rain on them for all I care! But I will end the rabble.”

“Alright, doc,” the engineer shifted to lay down on his side of the bed, “I’ll respect your passion for the idea. I’m still not sure it’ll work.”

“You just haven’t seen my army yet,” Aurick laid down, “You haven’t seen the men who are waiting for this chance.”


	5. Breathe

With a clear goal in mind, the group ~~hesitantly~~ followed the medic on his plan. There were some questions about the variables in this plan. The sniper held the most hesitation about this. Still, the group favored the goal for about two weeks.

Then, they came to the edge of the military zone. Camped in the desert’s moonlight, it seemed strange that only a couple of weeks before they had been out in an awful mountain storm. They had been hard pressed to clean themselves with such cold water before. Now they were out in the dry heat that led to several men removing half of their clothes as they lounged on foldable chairs.

“This is…we’ve come too far,” the sniper was shaking his head.

“What? What do you mean?” Skeeter asked.

“What do you mean, what do I mean? I mean that we’re going too far,” Mundaris rose to his feet, rubbing his hands on the front of his jeans, “We shouldn’t even be here. We shouldn’t even be thinking about being here. Hell, you lot should be scared as hell!”

“Don’t you think we are?” Brian’s voice was meek and almost quiet.

“God we are,” Skeeter ran his hands over his hair.

“It’s uh…it is…a bit of a stretch,” the engineer agreed a bit hesitantly. McInery gave Aurick a sideways glance, which Aurick was not about to take lightly.

“If we turn back now though…is it all for nothing?” Brian asked with a weak shrug.

“All what? We haven’t hardly done nothing!” Mundaris argued, “It’s a hairbrained idea that hasn’t had half the forethought put into it that it needs.”

“Well then, what do you suggest?” Skeeter asked.

“I don’t know? Not throwing ourselves at a losing fucking battle?” Mundaris said in a sharp growl.

Skeeter rose to his feet, looking ready for a fight, “You want a losing fucking battle?”

“Have you forgotten?” Lucien cut into the argument with a cool, collected tone, “Have you forgotten the machine?”

Everybody paused and followed the spy clone’s finger. They looked to the truck, clearly labeled for military use. It stood out so much, but it made others look away. Nobody wanted to tangle with a military vehicle, and so far none had questioned it passing through.

“What about it?” Mundaris’ feet shuffled nervously.

“You’re afraid. I understand,” Lucien said, holding onto that cool act.

“I’m not afraid!” Mundaris bristled.

“But we all have this machine to fall back on,” Lucien carried on without missing a beat, “None of us are going to die. Well, those of us who got the implants won’t die.” He shot a glance at Brian, who looked away meekly. “You’re looking at this with anticipation and nerves,” Lucien went on, “Where is your mercenary experience?”

“My experience? My experience is a whole lot of near-death experiences!” Mundaris said in a heated voice.

“I reckon most of us here have near-death experiences,” McInery chimed in, “And I think you can relate to not wanting to have that again.”

“What are you going on about, engineer?” Aurick finally spoke up, turning a glare at who he thought was his partner in science, “You were in agreement about this whole affair. Now you want to pull out like you’re afraid of the commitment! Why? You know the science is solid. You know the machinery works! You know this is going to work.”

“It’s just…” McInery hesitated, wincing under Aurick’s gaze, “It doesn’t seem like we are ready.”

“What is there to do? What could make you more ready?” Skeeter spoke quickly, “More time sitting on your hands? More time to think about being scared? More time to just be cowards and let the government go slaughter a bunch of people who didn’t ask to be what they are?”

“Weapons,” Brian’s voice was surprisingly strong, after how weak it had been before.

“Come again?” Mundaris asked him.

“Weapons!” Brian spoke a bit louder, “If we could get our hands on weapons, we would be better prepared! It would be way better to storm in with weapons in hand than to go empty handed!”

“I…uh…” Skeeter hesitated, rubbing his head, “I guess that’s sound logic.”

“We would have more supplies for fighting,” Brian added, “Doc, what do you think?”

Aurick raised an eyebrow at the scout clone, “Supplies for fighting? From where? Where are we to get these? From what I understand, there is a whole vault of tools just waiting to be handed over to clones being sent to the front.”

“Well, you know there _is_ that weapons facility we went to before,” Skeeter interrupted, “The one where we met the original Skeeter?”

“Sure,” Aurick huffed, “You really want to change out going for this facility that we are familiar with for a tourist facility?”

“It’s a better shot, I think,” Skeeter shrugged.

“It is definitely a smaller facility,” Lucien spoke up, “A smaller crew of security.”

“Yea!” Skeeter cheered, “And most of the people there aren’t worried about battle hardened clones coming for their guns!”

“Excuse you, I am not a clone,” McInery grunted.

“Not the point,” Skeeter retorted.

“A smaller facility,” Mundaris finally sat back down, “They probably still have armed security.”

“Well duh,” Skeeter rolled his eyes.

“If this was going to be a walk in the park, somebody else would have done it already,” Brian said, “Look, I’m the only one here who didn’t get an implant, and I’m ready to do this. What are you guys so afraid of?”

The sniper and the engineer looked at the scout for a long time. Finally the engineer sighed and leaned back in his chair. The sniper shot him a look, and it seemed like they were talking without saying anything.

“Do you want the mission with the training wheels or not?” Aurick asked, folding his arms over his chest. It was weird to think that these men would turn down a mission like this. He was sure any of the clones would jump at an opportunity like this, if given the right encouragement.

“You want weapons? Fine, we’ll go get weapons from that facility,” McInery finally said, “But you better come up with an actual plan by the time we get there!”

“Three steps ahead of you,” Lucien replied.

When he clambered into the passenger seat, Aurick glanced at Lucien sideways. The spy clone was paying him little mind, which felt unusual. He was focused on his task of driving, putting the vehicle into gear and looking for any cross traffic as he pulled out onto the highway. He never seemed to remove his focus from this very important task of driving.

He took a deep breath. What was he doing? It was strange to be thinking so much about the spy. It was especially precarious after everything they had learned about each other. It seemed like their lives were intertwined for so long, and while it felt like it had been his entire life, it turned out that it was the spy’s entire life.

“Is there something I can answer for you, Dr. Radlof?” Lucien asked, never moving his eyes from the road ahead.

He quickly averted his eyes. He could feel the heated flush rising up his neck to his face. He must have looked like an idiot for staring so openly at Lucien. Staring at a spy was a foolish thing to do, when they all had the sharp attentive training from their original, Gaben.

“It’s alright to ask,” Lucien’s tone was calm and sounded like it was an attempt to soothe.

Aurick chewed on his lip. There were not a lot of questions in his mind for the spy. It was more of a convoluted pile of thoughts he could not string together normally. There were memories he had and memories he could not string into a certain order. There were moments that he laughed at then that now he looked on as curious. Perhaps it was the context of time and experience, but he felt lost in understanding who Lucien really was.

“I guess if I asked you a question, I would ask you what you think of me, now that you know,” he stated, trying to sound philosophical. It was not entirely a question, just a statement of pondering. He did not want the spy to get in his head about any of his non-linear memories and thoughts.

“I think of you the same as I ever did,” Lucien replied, “I suppose it’s a little different. What I thought of you as a clone and you as Aurick mixed together into the man you are now. You’re a lot different then back then.”

“You too,” Aurick said, looking down at his hands in his lap.

“How?” Lucien asked.

“Hmm?” Aurick raised his head to look at the other man. Lucien was glancing between Aurick and the road ahead. “What?”

“How am I different from then?” Lucien asked.

“I suppose…” he hummed with thought, “I didn’t get to know you very well before you were shipped off. That was my fault.”

“I thought you did,” Lucien argued, “You could read every which way that I was different from Gaben. I thought you were actually starting to like me.”

That thought stirred a weird feeling. Aurick was not sure what it was. It did not feel entirely awful, but it did not feel great. It was a strong emotion and he was not sure he was okay with this part of the conversation.

Aurick swallowed the feeling as he tried to speak, “Well, then you were just…uh…you sort of struck me as a more psychopathic version of Gaben. Back when we met on the frontlines. You always seemed overly confident, but then every time you came back without a scratch. You were just as narcissistically cocky as-”

“Alright, I get it,” Lucien grumbled, “Gaben has left his mark on me through his DNA. I understand this. Can we move on.”

“It’s more than DNA,” Aurick argued, “It’s memory. Biology accounts for how your body grew. The rest was from the scans taken from Gaben.”

“Right,” Lucien sounded less than impressed, annoyed even.

“That’s why you didn’t know anything recent,” Aurick went on, “You didn’t know about the cat or Gaben’s death…”

“What was so important about a cat?” Lucien huffed, “It’s just a cat.”

“It’s not about the cat,” Aurick leaned his head back against the seat.

He could clearly remember Gaben when he was with that cat. “It’s what the cat represented,” Aurick explained, thinking on how Gaben played his fingers over the cat’s fur.

“And what is that?” Lucien asked. He sounded quite curt and disgruntled.

Aurick paused for a minute as he pondered that question. The cat was so significant yet meaningless at the same time. But somebody like Gaben would have killed a cat outright, just for existing in his space. He would not be surprised to discover he had a childhood full of animal abuse and torture. Yet, the man managed to find a pet he liked.

“Change.”

Lucien burst into laughter. The boisterous sound was surprising and terrifying. It brought back terrifying memories of the original spy’s laughter, how he never laughed unless it was something horrible. He only laughed like that when he was hurting somebody.

He held his breath as the face returned to his mind. A memory he had not seen in so long suddenly seemed as clear as glass. He could see Gaben’s grinning face, lips twisted and teeth all showing for what seemed to be the first time. He cackled as he watched one of the others from their team writhe in pain, a result of his own assault due to an argument. They were mercenaries, it was dismissible to have some psychotic tendencies. Aurick was not about to stop Gaben from being the psycho that got work done.

Looking at it now was different. Looking at it and hearing it now was so far different. He looked around for something, anything to ground himself. The cab of the vehicle felt hot and thick, like he was stuck in a sauna. His mind was swirling with thoughts about fainting and dying. Suddenly, he had to escape his current situation.

“Pull over!” he proclaimed.

“What?” Lucien stopped laughing to look at him.

“I need you to pull over! Pull over!” Aurick begged, desperate to get out. He already had one hand on the handle, but he could not risk jumping from a moving vehicle.

Lucien’s eyes widened, “Doctor, I- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean-”

“Pull over!” Aurick raised his voice.

Finally, Lucien let of the gas and started changing lanes. The vehicle came carefully to a stop at he side of the road and Aurick threw open his door. He flung himself out of the vehicle, rushing a few steps before stopping. It was near noon, so the sun was already rising quite high in the sky. The heat beating down on him was more relentless than when he was inside the vehicle, but out here there were no walls or windows to enclose him and it felt like he could actually breathe.

“Doctor, I did not mean to anger you,” Lucien came around the truck to him, “Please, we need to keep moving. The other truck is already out of sight.”

A hand touched Aurick’s shoulder and he swiftly swatted it away. He took a deep and careful breath as he tried to focus on calming down. He needed the spy to go away while he reminded his brain that he was not dealing with Gaben anymore.

“It’s just…you said change and I find it funny,” Lucien spoke a little meekly, “Gaben had a history of doing awful things. He loved doing awful things. Keeping a cat alive and…it’s just not Gaben.”

Aurick took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He ran his hands over his face. No longer trapped in the truck, he felt like he was back to his normal self, with an added shakiness. He just had to keep the memory that he was in the here and now, not with Gaben.

“It’s fine,” Aurick spoke carefully, “I understand that you do not understand. It’s okay to not understand these things. The change happened before you were cloned and after the scans. Things changed for both of us, me and him. I don’t know what happened in his life, but I don’t think things went the way he thought they would.”

“Doctor, can we discuss this in the truck now?” Lucien requested.

“Relax Lucien,” Aurick decided to sit down in the sand, positioning his legs to cross them. He would have preferred the folding chairs, but those were kept in the mobile living quarters.

“This whole operation was your idea,” Lucien argued.

“And it can wait,” Aurick patted the spot next to him.

“I am not sitting in the dirt, we could be seated in the truck,” Lucien argued, gesturing with both hands towards the vehicle.

“Then you go sit in the truck,” Aurick closed his eyes, “I need to breathe.”

“Doctor, please,” Lucien begged, “I know you’re angry at me. But be angry at me in the truck! Please!”

Aurick found himself chuckling at that, “Since when do you beg?”

“I…” when he met Lucien’s eyes, the man started looking around for some form of an answer.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but I’m not angry,” Aurick insisted.

Lucien looked at him with surprised eyes, “You’re…you’re not?”

“No, I’m not,” Aurick looked at the landscape ahead of him, “I told you. I just need to breathe.”

“But I…I thought I upset you. If we don’t get on the road, you’ll just be upset later that we didn’t catch up with the others,” Lucien argued.

Aurick took a deep breath, “All things come slowly.”

“War does not happen slowly,” Lucien argued, “Everything in battle happens too quickly to be sitting around!”

“Do you think we are in battle?” Aurick asked.

“No, of course not,” Lucien answered.

“Then calm down,” Aurick looked up at the brilliant blue sky. So many times he had looked up at this sky from the battlements and the base. So many times he had longed to escape that world and be his own person, not realizing at the time that he already was.

How many clones were like him? How many medics would die wishing they could escape to a world outside of battle. He may have started the creation of clones for the use of battle, but that did not mean he wished them to be disposed of like this. After living it for himself, experiencing the harshness of being the disposable trash the fascist government used, he did not wish this on any of them.

“I spent a decade fighting on the front just wishing I could have a moment like this,” Aurick said, eyes darting toward a thin cloud, “Where there is no noise of bullets. No shouting. No explosives or devices of destruction. Even the cars we can hear from here, they are not tanks or military grade weapons. It’s just cars.”

Finally, Lucien sat down next to him, “That may be true, but we are not truly free. You may be Aurick, but people still think you are a clone.”

“True,” Aurick nodded, “True.”

“That is why we need to fight. Isn’t it? That is the reason for starting this?” Lucien asked.

“Have you stopped to think about how others feel, Lucien?” Aurick countered.

“Of course!” Lucien sounded like he was protesting something, “I’m not Gaben!”

Aurick reached over to touch the spy clone’s shoulder, “No, you’re not. But just think of the maybe fourteen years you lived on the front. No freedom. No escape. A constant barrage of lies and fighting. And everyone around you must experience the same.”

“It’s true, I didn’t like it,” Lucien nodded in agreement.

Aurick turned his head to meet the spy’s eyes, “I’ve lived a decade with clones, thinking I too was a clone. You know what I did?”

“What?” Lucien shook his head.

“I didn’t even come up with a name, I just…made an identity. Perplexing as our situation was, I didn’t care about names, so much as identity. Being my own person. Being…not Aurick. That was important to me. I was defined by what made me myself in that moment, not my past. My past is full of experiences, those memories can haunt me all they like, like your laugh.”

Lucien’s flinch was so dramatic that it startled Aurick. He squeezed the spy clone’s shoulder to assure him. He took a deep breath for himself, so he could keep going with all of the assurance that he was giving to the other man.

“I believe that who we are is determined by our choices now,” Aurick explained, “You’re different from when we first met…in the cloning facility. Always trying to make yourself seem like you were Gaben.”

“You gave me a name,” Lucien said firmly.

“Hmm?” Aurick lost his train of thought when he was cut off.

“You gave me a name,” Lucien reaffirmed, “That’s when things changed. Suddenly…I realized…you saw me as my own person. Not just a clone, but _somebody_ different. Somebody who wasn’t Gaben. You named me, and I wanted to live up to that name.”

Aurick leaned back on his hands and gave the spy a small smile, “And that’s why the cat’s so important now.”

“Why?” Lucien sighed with a disgruntled moan.

“Because, like you changed with the name Lucien, so did Gaben change with the adopting of his cat,” Aurick explained, “I wasn’t there to see his transformation. His change could have come before the cat. But he described…he described a change of view when he first met his cat, a feeling much different from how he normally looked at other living beings.”

“You mean hatred and loathing?” Lucien offered.

“Those words mean the same thing,” Aurick countered.

“I know,” Lucien nodded, “That’s why I used them.”

Aurick sighed, “The point is that…well…the past happened and it’s important. There’s going to be things we cannot let go of. But what we choose to let go of and learn from…that’s what makes us who we are today. Who we are today is different from yesterday, because we choose that difference.”

Lucien sighed, “So, are you taking up philosophy now? Will you quit medical practice?”

“I’m being serious!” Aurick scorned the spy clone, “You can’t let go of what you knew Gaben to be because of memories. I can’t…fully let go of what you remind me of, because of my…memories of Gaben. But I fully commit to this belief that we are capable of change. Gaben was capable of change. He changed…maybe not fully but he changed. That’s why that cat was so important, because it represented something we all thought impossible. That’s why the cat is important now, because…at the end of the day, I want to know that I can change too. And…you may have been named after the cat, but it’s only because you were already a form of change.”

“What do you mean by that?” the spy clone frowned.

“Well, you know, I wasn’t personally involved in a lot of the reforming of clones before you. When I did the project, it was all the medical side of things. Randal and his crew took care of other affairs. You were the first I actually witnessed in person. It’s one thing to know that you aren’t Gaben and that you’re a clone of him, it’s another to meet you, a clone of him, in person,” Aurick explained.

“You sound so whimsical about it,” Lucien replied.

“You were so different,” Aurick chuckled breathily, “I remember being so irritated that I was being dragged back to a cloning facility. And then being so fascinated by you. You were the first clone I sat down to talk with. And to think it was concurrent with talking to Gaben…it was beyond fascinating!”

“Wait…” Lucien frowned, “Concurrent? What do you mean, concurrent?”

“Well, you know I was only really there because they wanted to trick me into giving up the mix for the life serum,” Aurick explained, “They wanted the recipe, but I was keeping it for safety’s sake.”

“Makes enough sense for such a manipulative organization,” Lucien agreed.

“Gaben was spying on me,” Aurick explained.

“While you were at the cloning facility?” Lucien pressed, his head tilted slightly.

“Yes, of course,” Aurick nodded.

“I don’t understand…why would he talk to you? He was spying on you? He gave himself away though? That goes against…everything,” Lucien shook his head, perplexed at the situation.

“Gaben was a changed man, in some way,” Aurick said, “He probably still liked his job, but I don’t think he liked how he had to go about it anymore. I think that sitting down to talk to me was his way of telling me what was going on. Actually, I think I remember him directly telling me what was going on.”

“Doubtful,” Lucien folded his arms over his chest.

“It’s true,” Aurick argued.

_“Doctor, I cannot put enough emphasis on this situation,” the spy interrupted the light-hearted laughter._

_“Oh? What’s that?” Aurick inquired._

_“They’re looking to get your recipe,” the spy said simply._

_Aurick hummed and nodded, “Yes, you told me about this before. I promise, I have been keeping a very close eye on my own work. I have even prevented you from finding out!” He grinned, pleased with himself and having the gall to throw it in this narcissist’s face._

_“They’re getting desperate, Dr. Radlof,” the spy pressed, “Don’t let them press you into a corner.”_

“Something about the way he talked had changed,” Aurick sighed, “I wish I could have put my finger on it back then. I certainly cannot now. I can only guess and wonder. Something changed in his life that made him want a cat for company and to help an old colleague hide important information.”

“I still think there was some form of motive behind it,” Lucien explained, “There always was. Gaben was a clever man. He relished fooling people. It probably gave him delight to leave knowing he fooled you.”

“But he could not fool a cat,” Aurick argued.

“Pardon?” Lucien raised an eyebrow.

“If he were his usual self, do you think he would have harmed that cat?” Aurick asked.

“Yes, of course he would have,” Lucien snorted, “He would have discarded it from his presence as soon as you were out of sight!”

“Yet…” Aurick shook his head, “I know you don’t know cats well. I was never big on cats. But cats are a breed that make their discomforts well known. Yet he came with no hissing, no growling and no scratching. He was comfortable with Gaben. He lazed in the man’s lap for crying out loud! That cat showed that something about Gaben changed, not just while he was talking to me. He had changed something about his life that…well…” He let out a heavy sigh.

“That what?” Lucien pressed.

“It makes me regret what I did,” Aurick admitted, “It…may have been the only reason I was so uncomfortable with what I was doing…that and he did not so much as plea for his life when he knew what was happening.”

“Doctor?” Lucien irrupted.

“Hmm?” Aurick looked at the spy clone.

“Don’t you think we could be having this conversation in the truck?” Lucien gestured to the vehicle.

Aurick sighed, “Yes, I suppose it’s time to get going. I feel like I have caught my breath now. Thank you for sitting with me.” He got to his feet and followed Lucien back to the vehicle.


	6. Last Words

_“Ah! Monsieur Radlof!” the spy’s familiar voice broke through the quiet of the study area. Aurick felt his hackles rise and his heartrate increased._

_He turned and frowned at the newcomer, “It’s Dr. Radlof. I am a doctor. I have always been a doctor.” He narrowed his eyes at the man, before turning back to what he had been doing. He did not continue, instead trying to carefully hide his work._

_“Surely you can spare a minute for an old friend?” the spy’s tone was so coy and innocent._

_“Old friend?” Aurick turned around with his lip twisted up in disgust, “Old friend! You are the worst man I have ever met! Worse than my enemies! You betrayed me – betrayed us! Now look! Where we are? And here you are thinking you can waltz in here with your cat and-”_

_His eyes laid upon the animal tucked into the spy’s arm. “Is that a cat?” he pointed to the sleepy looking animal._

_“I find animals to be very soothing.” the spy’s voice replied calmly. He noticed that the spy’s thumb was gently stroking the animals’ fur._

_As perplexing as this was, he figured he ought to be straightforward with taking the spy off guard. The man always had tricks up his sleeve. As strange as this one was, this was just another ploy from the spy._

_“You need to be soothed?” the medic teased with a clearly spiteful smile._

_“I thought perhaps you did,” the spy replied coyly._

_Suddenly, the orange cat leaped from the spy’s arm to the floor. The cat did not even need an invitation to make itself comfortable. It just saw the chair and realized that it could jump up and make itself comfortable. It curled up there, as if on a cozy bed._

_“Since you are so volatile towards somebody simply doing his job,” the spy started._

_“I would hardly call betraying your employer’s other employees being doing your job, spy,” the medic argued._

_“Fine then,” the spy replied curtly, “We are coworkers again now. And they have required me to work here.”_

_“Work here?” the medic glanced around the room, “For what? What would a spy do here?”_

_Of course he already knew what the spy would be doing here. He was a spy who gathered intel, so he would be here to find out what the employers could not find out for themselves. Everything that Aurick was hiding, everything he had to hide would be in danger with this terrible man around._

_“If it is not obvious, then I will explain it and save the trouble of the so-called betrayal,” the spy sauntered across the room to seat himself in a chair, as gingerly as the cat had, “I was sent to watch you. I’m to keep an eye on you. I’m here as an old colleague, but I am here as a spy.”_

_“You wanted to know, and now you know,” the spy added, “Take heart, I don’t intend to do anything brash like reporting you.”_

_Aurick was a little shocked. The spy was using the fact that Aurick knew what he did to manipulate him. But how would this work? Telling Aurick the truth outright seemed counterproductive to his work. He just gave away a warning to all of the harm he would be doing to Aurick._

_The spy reached over to touch the ginger in an almost affectionate manner. It was strange that he made this gesture, an intimate and almost homely kind of gesture from a man who kept himself cold and distant from others. It was like watching a predatory animal reach out to the young of its prey with gentle paws._

_“Now I know,” Aurick glared at the man._

_The spy looked up at him. He eyes looked so tired. Aurick thought that maybe the man’s age was showing._

_“You look like you need some life serum,” he jested._

_“As much as I trust in your handiwork,” the spy watched Aurick take a seat, “I choose not to…”_

_“You choose not to? What? Do you think it is an addictive substance?” Aurick inquired._

_“The chance to be young and whole again is a lie,” the spy sighed, leaning an elbow on the arm of the chair and his cheek on his fist, “I know a lie when I hear it. Besides…I’ve already had my prime. It’s time the world moved on without my kind.”_

_Aurick fell silent. He stared at the spy for a long time. What sort of discussion was this? What in the world was the man talking about?_

_“Have you perhaps been reading too many conspiracy theories? Or perhaps you have been taking other forms of drugs?” Aurick could not help but chuckle a little._

_“No,” the spy looked at the cat he was petting, “I’m just sick of life as it is. I always thought that’s just how it is.”_

_“It’s just the way things are,” Aurick shrugged, not sure what particular thing the spy was thinking of._

_“Ah, but enough about me,” the spy protested, “Tell me something boring about you.”_

_“Tell you something boring about me?” Aurick tilted his head at the man._

_“I need something to tell employers,” the spy explained, “If I’m to keep working I must be productive. It would be best if you kept to your paranoid manners and only gave me the boring information.”_

_“I don’t understand what you mean,” Aurick furrowed his brow._

_“It means I’m tired, and I’m probably as lazy as my cat,” the spy smiled. After a few moments to let it sink in, the spy started laughing softly. It was not a grand burst of laughter, just a soft and comfortable laughter._

_The sound of boot steps outside alerted Aurick to what might come. He could never be sure of who might pop in. He had to make sure to be productive only in secret. So he quickly tucked some bottles away and put out the formaldehyde. If any fool actually thought this was an ingredient for the serum, they would find out the painful way._

_The door opened with no formality. One man stepped inside. Through the doorway, Aurick could tell that there were others, soldiers who were ready to do this man’s bidding. This man was well dressed, looking like a superior officer above all superior officers._

_“Is there something I can help you with?” he kept his tone neutral, but he allowed himself to show some annoyance to this nuissance._

_“We have reason to believe that you, Dr. Aurick Radlof, have been committing treason,” the man announced so proudly that Aurick needed a moment to process what was said._

_“What?” Aurick blinked at him as he tried to process this sudden accusation._

_“You have been withholding information,” the man said with a booming loud voice._

_“What basis do you have for such a claim?” Aurick demanded._

_“You are to be charged with aiding the enemy,” the man barely skipped a beat._

_“Now wait a moment! How may I refute this while I am innocent, if you do not present me with the evidence?” Aurick demanded._

_“You want proof?” the man’s mouth turned into a wicked grin, “I’ll show you.”_

_Aurick frowned as the man stepped out into the hall. Eager to be done with this, yet reluctant to cooperate, he moved hesitantly into the hallway himself. He glanced at the officers, quickly counting how many there were._

_“This way,” the superior officer demanded, marching down the hall towards the halls that would usually be filled with clones. He wondered if perhaps something had been misinterpreted by him working so long on the case with the lone spy clone._

_Dread felt cold in the pit of his stomach and it filled his shoes with lead. Aurick could not escape the feeling that Randal Moser had figured out what was going on with the project. He had figured out that the clone already accepted that he was a clone. Now he was out for some greedy vengeance by sending Aurick down the rabbit’s hole._

_A door opened and Aurick followed the man inside. Two officers followed, stepping into the dimly lit room. Already waiting were two officers, Randal Moser and a figure restrained on a table._

_At first, he thought the figure was the spy clone. He was shaking with panic. It was growing clearer and clearer that Moser had indeed thrown him under the bus._

_“I’ve already told you,” Moser was begging with the officers who were already there. He suddenly turned to the superior officer who entered the room. “Sir! I have no affiliations with whatever they have been doing!”_

_The officer raised a hand, abruptly silencing Moser. Moser looked so meek and scared. Whatever happened, it was not going according to any plan Moser had, if he had any._

_“Get him out of here,” the superior officer gestured to the door._

_Without question or hesitation, two of the officers grabbed Moser by the arms and escorted him out the door. Moser was panicked, looking around and trying to find a way out of this. He looked like he was being marched to his death._

_“Wait! Wait! What are you going to do? Wait!” the door slammed on Moser, effectively shutting out his annoying voice._

_“Now then,” the superior officer turned to Aurick, “We’ve heard a lot about your relations with the double agent, Gaben Belhumeur.”_

_“My relations with Gaben Belhumeur?” he hesitated, a little taken aback. He was not sure he had ever heard the man’s name before this._

_“Yes, we were previously aware of your relations to men,” the superior officer’s glare spoke volumes of what he meant. “Are you in a homosexual relationship with this double agent?”_

_Aurick’s head spun in spite of himself. He was quite beside himself, shocked even. He wondered who would make an accusation like that. Judging by the look on the spy’s face, this was not his idea._

_“No,” Aurick looked to the superior officer with outward repulsion, “What relations would I have with_ him _? Is he not under the same employment as_ I _? Because if not, this was something I was lied to about.”_

_“He is a double agent, Dr. Radlof,” the superior officer said sternly, “He works both sides to his advantage.”_

_“I am aware of_ his _work,” Aurick growled, “So what? What have I done? Nothing!”_

_“What have you given him?” the superior officer demanded._

_“Nothing!” Aurick growled in response._

_“What did he ask you for?” the superior officer pressed on._

_“Nothing!” Aurick barked._

_“I find that suspiciously untrue,” the superior officer growled in response, “On your knees, welp!”_

_“On my-?” he did not have a chance to react before a soldier’s hands were on his shoulders, shoving him down onto his knees. Panic struck him too late, as the barrel end of a pistol came to his face._

_“He’s telling the truth,” the spy suddenly spoke up._

_The superior officer hesitated, looking over at the subdued man on the table. He did not look like he particularly believed the claim. “You’re going to tell me that Aurick Radlof is telling the truth about you not asking him for anything? Damn stupid snake! What do you take me for?”_

_“Apparently an idiot,” the spy hissed, “One who doesn’t understand the finesse of espionage. I did not ask him for anything, because that would have been stupid!”_

_“You’re lying,” the superior officer protested._

_“Why would I lie for that man?” the spy replied calmly, “He hasn’t done me any favors. Certainly didn’t make my job any easier. He gave me nothing.”_

_“That may be so,” the superior officer went on, “But you’re both still under suspicion.”_

_“Well, present the evidence and we’ll refute it!” Aurick demanded._

_“I have a better idea,” the superior officer nodded to the two remaining officers._

_“What’s that?” Aurick glanced at the officers warily._

_“You’re going to interrogate the double agent,” the superior officer gestured to his agents. One of them raised his rifle, ready to shoot Aurick in the head._

_“And then what? You’ll interrogate me?” Aurick scoffed._

_“I’m sure you’ll be an easier nut to crack,” the superior officer snickered, “Your ex-colleague here needs a madman’s touch.”_

_Aurick grimaced. A madman? Was that what people called him these days? Of course it was hard to tell who among his ex-colleagues were true madmen. Generally they were all a bit crazy in their own rights. They were mercenaries after all, it took a bit of madness to go to a certain level. Still, he did not like the implications of this._

_“Well?” the superior officer gestured to the man on the table, “Go on then!”_

_Aurick hesitated, glancing at the spy. The man was looking at him, his eyes fixated on him with what Aurick could only believe to be fear. He tried not to think about it too much, as he considered his options._

_“As per protocol,” Aurick’s voice sounded shaky at first. He coughed to clear his throat and continued speaking clearly, “This must be recorded.”_

_“Very well,” the superior officer gestured to the recording technology that was already available in the room. Technology was kept in all testing chambers like this. Any laboratory or testing room had some way to record a finding or a test._

_Aurick proceeded to turn it on. He angled it appropriately before he spoke. He wanted to make sure the spy was in clear view._

_He took a deep breath. “I, Dr. Aurick Radlof under the assertion of employment and the threat of death-”_

_“Just get on with it!” the superior officer hissed._

_Aurick shot the man a glare, whilst one of the lower ranking officers gestured with his rifle. He understood that they meant business with their insistence on hurrying this along._

_He refused to be cowed like this, “Under threat of death, I am to conduct the final interrogation of…of…” He swallowed as he searched for what to say. It was not like he had memorized the name or even had time to full grasp what was happening._

_“Go on,” the superior officer pressed._

_Aurick noted the glint of the rifle briefly. “Under threat of death for treason…” as the words left his mouth, his thoughts went back to his feelings about this government. Treason was a word for traitors, and the only thing he had betrayed was his own cause. He hated this fascist government and its horrendous political climate. It was a faux dictatorship playing democracy._

_He swallowed hard. He might die here for anything he said. These men meant business and would likely go through with their threats. If he died though, it would just be an end to the madness. It would be an end to everything that he had to be put through._

_Then there was the spy. Once the most hated of his coworkers, the spy was now a submissive subject on a table to be poked and prodded. If he ever got free from this table, he might come after Aurick. Or perhaps he would not. He did not know why he felt that the spy’s days were numbered. But if he did not ensure how the spy left this table, he felt there was a chance his last days were going to be tumultuous torture._

_Aurick gathered himself, turned on his heel and walked towards the table. He stepped around it to be on the side opposite of the camera. From this position, the superior officer could not see whatever Aurick was looking at or doing with his hands._

_“I’m going to make this simple,” the medic said, as he pulled a glove onto his hand. He felt so numb in this moment, like he was not here in his body. Yet this was his body moving and doing this._

_The spy huffed through his nose and closed his eyes. “I’m never telling you anything,” the spy growled._

_Aurick stared at the man for a long time. He could not understand this. The man had been talking freely just a minute before this. Now he was refusing to talk? Did he want to die here and now?_

_The thought shocked him. Shaken to his core, he was not sure how he could proceed otherwise. When the spy said he would not give information, he meant it. Aurick knew he meant it. The spy would have talked his way out of being interrogated if he was going to be this stubborn about it._

_He barely moved his lips as he muttered, “Just tell them whatever you have. Spare us both.”_

_The man’s lips did not seem to move as he said, “You’re the one who said final.”_

_Aurick took a breath. He did not remember saying final, but he understood what that meant. This was the spy’s final hoorah. He would take any of his secrets down with him no matter what._

_“Remove the mask,” he heard the superior officer hiss._

_Aurick noticed the spy stiffening as he reached for his head. He reminded himself that this man was not an old friend. As he removed the mask, he reminded himself of the betrayal that came from this ex-colleague._

_He stared at the marred face for a while. The scarring was extensive and looked like the initial injury had been painful. The man’s face was barely recognizable. It was hard to think that his face once looked like the faces of his clones._

_“Your first question, who do you work for?” the superior officer spoke loudly and clearly._

_“This is foolishly self-incriminating,” the spy stated loudly._

_“Are you admitting to guilt?” the man off screen demanded._

_“No! I am saying that there is a reason you brought me to this doctor!” the spy shouted in rage. He tried to kick his feet but his legs were strapped down._

_“Then answer the question,” the man demanded._

_“No,” the spy replied curtly._

_The medic grabbed a pair of pliers, not something intended for use on a human body. He grabbed one of the spy’s hands and used the pliers to twist his little finger. The response was an immediate scream of pain. Even a man of such espionage expertise could not hide when he felt extreme pain._

_“Your next question,” the man off screen said as the screaming died down, “Where did you take the information you had gathered?”_

_The spy breathed in hoarsely, “Fuck you!”_

_The medic immediately responded by twisting another of his fingers. He gave no response, simply focusing on the act of twisting this finger. He paid no mind to the kicking and screaming of his patient. He had to be far away from this act, distant in his mind so that he did not show any undue remorse._

_“That’s enough!” the superior officer barked._

_When the screaming stopped, the spy’s voice was hoarse and ragged. He took tired ragged breaths as he tried to shakily regain his composure. He was shaking like a leaf now, trembling so visibly that he did not seem like the same man Aurick knew. After a few moments of breathing, he twisted his face. Before Aurick could react, the spy spat at his face. He reeled back and touched his face. It was very jarring to be brought back into the moment by this act. He wondered if it was done on purpose, the spy’s way of forcing him to pay attention to the pain that he was in._

_He looked over at the superior officer and said, “Would you hand me something to wipe this off with?”_

_“We have to finish,” the man said sternly._

_“We will finish when I am not covered in a possibly infectious contamination,” Aurick growled. He did not like having spit on his face, what was more he needed to reach for something, anything different from pliers._

_The other men in the room shuffled around, looking for something to wipe Aurick’s face with. Aurick turned to an array of medical supplies laid out. He opened a medical kit, a red box with a white plus sign on it. He intended to use some sort of cleaning material from it, but upon opening it his eyes fell on a vial and some syringes._

_His eyes hit the label, clearly marked for any scientist to see. His heart began to race as he discreetly snatched it up and filled a syringe. It was hard not to let the other men in the room see what he was doing. He made quick work of the poison and grabbed the disinfecting wipes from the box to make a show of cleaning his face off._

_“Incompetent buffoons,” Aurick muttered as he turned back to the table._

_When he returned to the table, the spy’s eyes were fixated on him. Fear was emanating from that look. His face looked pale through the scarring. He pulled the syringe that had gone into his pocket, seeing that the others were distracted. It would be his own chance to get away with this without seeing consequences for himself. He kept his eyes on the other men, wary of their presence and attention. He looked down at the spy as his hands worked to get the needle attached properly to the syringe._

_He could see the spy staring at the syringe. He could see the man’s mind racing. The cogs were turning as he thought about everything happening here and now. There was no way the spy did not know what was happening._

_He took a breath before he inserted the needle. The spy kept staring at him, silently gaping at him. If he knew it was poison, he should have shouted to incriminate Aurick. When Aurick glanced at the man’s eyes, he thought he saw a spark of the old devil he once was. He wondered what the man was thinking, and whether the lack of turning Aurick in was his way of showing gratitude for the release from torture._

_Aurick quickly hid the syringe in his pocket and discarded the needles. He turned his gaze back to the guards off screen. They were muttering to each other, too quietly for him to make out what they were saying. They had just about forgotten that they had left Aurick to his own whims._

_“Medic,” a quiet whisper summoned his attention back to the patient on the table._

_The spy’s eyes were droopy. The poison was definitely having its effect on him. It was slowing his body’s processes already. Soon his heart would stop, but for now he was awake._

_Aurick was hesitant, but realized that the spy’s words would die with him soon. So, he offered his ear. He was not sure what a man like this spy would say as his final words in this world._

Aurick opened his eyes and took a deep breath. His face had been plastered to the glass. He wondered how long he had been asleep. How long had he been like this? He blinked away the sleepiness as his eyes adjusted to the natural blur of the world around him without his glasses.

“Here,” he found his glasses and put them on to see that the spy was still driving. He had handed over the glasses as well. “You fell asleep, and I didn’t want you to injure yourself.”


	7. Scouting the Factory

Aurick took a deep breath as he opened the back of the truck. They were parked a short ways away from the factory, not wanting to draw much attention. He needed the back to be open and easy for them to get out of. It also had to be turned on in order to function.

He stepped inside and turned the switches. It began to hum with life as he turned the final lever. It was ready to go, now they just had to get inside and get to the weapons. Once they had weapons, it would be much easier to do whatever they wanted.

“Hey doc,” a scout’s voice caught his attention. He turned to see Skeeter. “So, I was talking to Brian, and we think he should stay here. You know, since he’s not on respawn and all.”

Aurick frowned, but nodded in agreement. It was irritating that the other scout clone was so hesitant about getting the implant that connected to the respawn. Though, given they were unarmed and any guards _would_ be armed, it would be far too dangerous for Brian to go in with them.

He stepped out of the back and helped secure the doors so they would not swing around wildly. He was soon joined by the others. Gathered together, it was easy to take inventory of what they had going in. McInery had a shotgun and Mundaris had a rifle. That was about it in regards to weapons. The most the rest of them could do was grab blunt objects and knives.

“So what’re you going to do?” Skeeter was asking Brian.

“I uh…I dunno,” Brian was looking at his feet.

“We will need somebody to man this vehicle,” Lucien spoke up, gesturing to the respawn truck, “If anything happens, we may need a quick getaway, and this is the most important vehicle.”

“What the hell? What about my truck!” Mundaris protested.

Lucien rolled his eyes, “Your truck does not have technology that can potentially make us immortal fighters.”

“I don’t know about the immortal part,” McInery shook his head.

Brian shot the spy a grateful smile. He seemed relieved to be given some part to play in all of this.

Medic cleared his throat, hoping to catch everyone’s attention, “As the majority of us are unarmed, let’s avoid confrontations as much as possible. Hostility can be dangerous. While we have the respawn, it would be best to avoid it. We want to avoid setting off alarms as long as we can.”

“How do you suggest that?” the spy inquired.

“Well, we don’t really know what their security system is like,” Brian spoke up, “Back at the programming facility we just had cameras and security personnel. I don’t even think most of the cameras were watched most of the time. They only came up when there was a fight and they needed evidence to sort out what happened.”

“Well, I doubt they have such careless security at a weapons facility in the middle of civilian territory,” Lucien shook his head.

“Well, how will we know?” Skeeter inquired.

“Well, we got ourselves a spy,” McInery pointed at Lucien. Lucien looked at the engineer with surprise and shock. “And he’s got a perfectly functioning disguise kit. I don’t know why he can’t do some recon first.”

“First? I don’t think we’ll have time for that,” Skeeter argued, “We gotta do this before the sun come up.”

Lucien sighed and rolled his eyes, “Fine. You idiots go find your way in. I’ll go find out what the security is like.” Lucien proceeded towards the facility on his own.

“Well? How are we going about this?” Skeeter asked, “I mean, I see a front door, but I imagine that’s where security would expect the most traffic…so cameras and shit.”

“We’ll have to scope it out for another entrance,” McInery answered, “You and doc take the west side, Michael and I will take the east side. We’ll meet around the back and share what we’ve found.”

“Sounds fine,” Skeeter turned to Aurick, “Shall we go?”

Aurick shook his head, then pointed to the other two men, “You are both armed with guns. Neither of us have one.”

“Fair enough,” McInery glanced at Mundaris with a sigh, “You go with the scout. I’ll go with doc.”

The sniper merely grunted with a nod in response. He gestured for Skeeter to follow as he started on his way to the facility. Aurick turned his attention fully to McInery, who rested the barrel of his shotgun against his shoulder.

“Welp, let’s get to it,” the engineer started after the others.

For a while, Aurick just followed the shorter man in silence. They walked along the same path as the sniper and the scout, until it was time to diverge to a path leading to the west side of the facility. Aurick glanced at the two figures disappearing to the east curiously.

They were alone in the dark as they circled the facility. There were a few secured staff doors. Testing them revealed that they were firmly locked. Still, neither of them said a word, quietly moving and checking the area.

Finally, the silence got to Aurick. He could not proceed like this anymore. He needed to fill the air with something.

“So…you and the sniper are rather close, aren’t you?” he inquired as he studied the wall they walked beside. Any vents or things like that could be possible entrances.

“Not really, no,” McInery replied flatly, “Just a mutual respect coming from the years spent in isolation.”

“You were quick to pick without thinking of the repercussions of two of us going without weapons,” Aurick noted.

“It hadn’t occurred to me,” the engineer replied curtly.

“It just seemed like a fairly quick decision,” Aurick explained.

“And you? You seemed rather quick to dismiss the scout,” McInery argued, “You seem to be trying to stay distant there.”

“That’s not it at all. And I didn’t suggest we change teams. I was expressing my concern about weapons. You could have handed one of us the shotgun,” Aurick protested.

“My mistake then,” McInery rolled his eyes.

“You seem put off,” Aurick noted.

“You’re throwing around accusations and making assumptions,” McInery replied, “It’s enough to put a bur in one’s shoe.”

Aurick paused, trying to think of what he meant by that. It was a shock to be reminded time and again that McInery was far different from his clones. None of his clones threw out lines like this.

“I am merely making an observation,” Aurick explained, “And it’s very quiet and that is getting under my skin.”

McInery sighed and shifted the shotgun barrel to his other shoulder. He seemed a little irate to Aurick, so he decided not to push any further.

“Good, we’re here,” McInery interrupted the silence.

Listening to the chirp of insects, they looked around the poorly lit area. There was no sign of the sniper or the scout. They might have found a door, so Aurick decided to go look for them.

“Where are you going? We agreed to rendezvous at the back,” McInery barked at him.

“That wasn’t a hard and fast rule,” Aurick argued, “They might have found a door. Come on!”

The engineer sighed and followed, “Fine fine. I’m coming.”

Aurick slowed his feet to match the shorter man’s pace again. Though, he had the feeling that McInery did not appreciate this as much as he might have once upon a time.


	8. Inside the Facility

Barely finished breaking into the building and Lucien’s attention was drawn away by shouting. He sighed as he realized that a scout was going to get them all caught before they were even inside. He would either have to retreat or work fast. He mulled that thought over, trying to decide how to react. Maybe he could use this as a distraction.

The shouting persisted. The tone did not attract his attention in particular. Rather, it was what he said.

“You snipers are all the fucking same!” the scout shouted.

“You clones aren’t any better!” the sniper replied, with a bit of a quieter voice. He was not helping the situation though.

“You should be fucking dead in the fucking desert! I’ll kill you here myself!” the scout shouted.

That was it. That was the trigger. Lucien could remember the sniper they left dead in the desert. He remembered how he treated scout, belittling the effects that come with loss and grief. It had all come to a head and the sniper had been ended there in the desert.

It was not a far stretch to think that this time scout would be the one to take the shot. He was capable of it. With as much time as he had had to process what had happened over a year ago, the spy figured that scout had left those feelings behind.

He retreated from the entry point he was unlocking. This needed to take precedent, if only for the safety of one of their members and the stability of their group dynamic. Even Aurick had no idea what had happened with scout and the sniper back in the desert. At least, Lucien was certain he was never told. Skeeter never talked about it, and it just sort of went the wayside.

As Lucien hurried towards them, he mulled over why this was happening. They had been around the original Michael Mundaris for a long time now. He was a bit different from the cloned sniper who fancied the scout, though their behavioral traits were very similar. Surely both of the scouts had gotten along well enough with the sniper for this to be water under the bridge. Especially since it had nothing to do with Michael Mundaris.

He came upon the two of them scuffling. It seemed to shift between trying to push each other away and trying to wrangle the sniper rifle out of each other’s hands. They were at a loss for getting an upper hand in all of it. Mundaris was long since out of training for any kind of fighting, when compared to the clone scout, who had spent his life on the battlefield until a little over a year ago.

“Knock it off!” Lucien hissed.

“He started it!” Skeeter’s head whipped around.

“I don’t care who started it!” Lucien hissed back at him, “Lower your voice!”

“We’re on a stealth mission, you bloody piker!” Mundaris lowered his voice a bit more, “Go badger somebody else, you moron!”

Skeeter’s head whipped back to the sniper, “Why don’t you say that to my face?”

“Moron!” Mundaris spat.

“You two!” Lucien grabbed a shoulder on each man and thrusted them apart from each other. It was a bit difficult since they were clinging to the rifle. “We are in the middle of a mission. Are you two suicidal?” he growled.

“He started it!” Skeeter hissed, finally lowering his voice.

“I told you to quit yammering!” Mundaris hissed back.

Lucien gave them both a forceful shove, “Enough! Both of you! We are on-”

“What’s going on over there?” a voice cut his words off. His nerves went taut with the thought that they had been caught.

“The hell?” Mundaris turned and grunted, “Don’t startle us like that, mate.”

Lucien turned his attention to the approaching men. It was dark, but he could make out the medic’s tall rigid form striding towards them, with the shorter engineer following behind. He took a breath to ease his nerves upon seeing that the others were rejoining the group. It seemed like they had not made any headway, unless the two of them were there to fetch the sniper and the scout for an entrance they had found. Though the spy highly doubted that possibility.

“What is going on?” the engineer inquired with a stern tone.

“Asshole was being an asshole,” Skeeter gestured towards Mundaris.

“I wasn’t the one yammering during a stealth mission!” Mundaris hissed, “We are still on a stealth mission!”

“It doesn’t matter who was doing what,” Aurick interrupted, “We have a mission to get through!”

“Did you boys find an entry?” McInery inquired in a gentle voice.

“No,” Mundaris replied, “Nothing back here.”

McInery sighed impatiently, “We’re not getting in without a way in. Spy, did you find anything?”

“I was about to make my way in when this commotion that could have gotten us more trouble than we can handle came along,” Lucien gestured to the sniper and the scout.

“I didn’t start it!” Mundaris protested.

“Yea, whatever,” Skeeter rolled his eyes.

“Shut up!” Lucien hissed, “If you imbeciles cannot find a way in by yourselves, then come with me!” He huffed as he spun on his heel. He gestured for them to follow as he proceeded to his point of entry.

It was not so difficult to get into the building. It was being able to resume undetected that became a problem. Cameras lined the halls and covered the entire span of the building’s traversable areas. The feeling of being watched was palpable and left the spy in a state of worry if he left the medic. He might have been Aurick, but looking at him now, he could not let go of the fact that this was _his_ medic.

“Lucien, get out of the way,” Skeeter pushed past the spy to proceed down the hall.

“Why’re you blocking the way? Git going!” McInery said in a bit louder of a voice than necessary.

“We’re surrounded by cameras,” Lucien spoke low so they would know not to shout around here, “There are no doubt guards posted around here.

“We’ll deal with them when we come to that,” Mundaris shoved past Lucien, “Stop whimpering.”

A hand landed on his shoulder and his head turned to see Aurick, “Let’s go. I’m sure you’re more than up to the task of shutting down the security.”

Lucien nodded, but he could not help the thick heavy rock of dread in his stomach. Looking at Aurick now, he half wanted to plead with him to turn around and go back. He had not felt so moved to turn the medic away from his job since the day he tried to keep him from the trucks. That seemed like an eternity ago. That seemed like they were two very different people, who were farther apart than he could have ever wanted. Now he stood closer to the medic than he ever had before, and he just wanted him to be safe.

“If we get into any trouble, we have respawn,” Aurick whispered, rubbing Lucien’s shoulder, “And if it comes to it, we have more than our own arsenal of experience in a fight.”

Lucien nodded again, before proceeding down the hall. He turned on his watch so he would disappear from the cameras. There was no need to bring suspicion by alerting security that there was a spy walking around inside the building. It was already likely that security guards were alerted to the medic, engineer, sniper and scout that were in there. They would have to deal with that on their own though. Lucien had his goal to shut down whatever security he found.

It must have been twenty minutes already, and still he could not find any security rooms. Surely they should be labeled more properly. There should be signs to show people where it was. Instead, he ended up following his curiosity when he saw the word _BUNKERS_ lit up over a hallway.

Given this was a weapons factory, it seemed unlikely that anybody would bunk here. But if somebody was bunking here, then they would have information about the security room. He might even find a sleeping security guard and swipe his access to the room.

He proceeded with cautious steps, walking slowly and quietly. He dared not let his presence be known. The farther he went, the more worried he grew. He pulled out his disguise kit. The thing had not been used in a while, but was dented and beaten badly in the past year. It would not be reparable, but at least it worked to give himself a disguise of a scout, just in case he ran into somebody. He would put them at ease with the baby face of a scout clone than that of a spy clone.

He stopped midstep and blinked when he realized that he had passed several windows on either side of the hall. His head swiveled between the two, but the glass was dark. He approached the left side, squinting to try peering through the glass. This proved to be impossible, as the glass did not let him see anything through its smoky color.

A quick glance around and he spotted a control panel. It was situated between a door and the window. He had not noticed the door, given it blended quite well with the color of the wall and had neither handle nor knob. He peered closely at the control panel, but most of the buttons were not labeled. At least there was one button labeled glass that he could press. When he tried it, the glass’ color dissipated, becoming fully transparent.

He looked in at the room, a row of five bunk beds on either side, housing a total of ten mercenaries. Upon peering closer, he could see that they were scout clones. They were sleeping peacefully though, completely unaware of the man outside peering back at them.

Curious, he turned to another glass panel and pressed its button. Inside were another ten bunk beds with sleeping clones. He went to each glass window and found more and more clones here. All of them were sleeping and sorted by their class. There were snipers and heavys. There were demomen and soldiers. There was even one room of medics, but there were only six medics from what he could see in that room.

Strange, he thought. This was a weapons facility, so why did they have clones here? He wondered if they were used as labor here, housed in the facility so they could perform the labor that would normally be performed by paid civilians.

“The truest form of a slave,” he muttered to himself.

A knock on a window sent a jolt of surprise up his spine. He turned around to see that the glass that made the sound was completely dark. He had yet to activate its panel yet. He was sure he would find more sleeping mercenaries on the other side of the glass, but something felt activated in his nerves. The hair on his arms stood on end as he realized that he was letting some inferior part of his brain dictate his actions.

He approached the panel and pressed the glass button. To his surprise, there was a clone leaning against the glass, looking bored as he raised his hand to knock on the glass. Just as he started tapping, his eyes met Lucien’s gaze. He stared back at the masked spy clone, realizing that he had been startled by one of the types of clones he hated most.

“Well look at you,” the other spy clone said, with a taunting little smirk on his face, “Sneaking out after hours. You must be very proud of yourself.”

Lucien frowned at the other clone. He must have decided that Lucien was one of them, one of the clones housed here at this facility. Though, judging by how few spies were in this room, he did not think it would be so easy to make such a mistake. By Lucien’s count, there were only three other spy clones sleeping in the beds, making a total of four spies in that room.

“Must feel like a big man,” the other clone chuckled, “Such a clever scout.”

Of course this clone was easily fooled by his disguise. Though judging by the dark circles around his eyes and the way he rested his body’s weight against the glass, it appeared that he was very tired. It was likely that he was too sleepy to make alert decisions.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you before,” the other clone said, in a light tone, “You look a little rough for a newbie. But…I’m sure I would have recognized you.”

“Are you quite finished?” Lucien inquired.

The other clones shot him a toothy grin, “Are you going to gloat or not? If I had broken out, I would only come back to gloat. Though, I think that is foolish. But you make your own decisions.”

“I am not a new clone,” Lucien replied, “I’m actually much older.”

“I doubt that,” the other clone huffed a breathy laugh, “I’ve been here for five years.”

“And I was on the front for fourteen,” Lucien snapped.

The other man hesitated, eyeing him sideways, “If you say so.”

“It’s the truth,” Lucien replied.

“Hah!” the other clone barked, which turned into snorting, “I’m under no impression that you would do such a thing.”

Lucien raised a hand, as if he was about to press a button on a panel, “Wouldn’t I?”

“You are better off alone,” the other clone raised one shoulder in a lazy shrug, “I’m not stupid. Taking other clones with you would be foolish when you could most easily escape alone.”

“I’m not escaping,” Lucien replied sharply, “I’m stealing.”

“Stealing?” the other clone blinked at him, “What is there of value here?”

“This is a weapons facility,” Lucien replied, “We’re stealing weapons.”

“We?” the other clone’s face gave away telltale signs that he was becoming more intrigued.

“So…” Lucien looked at the panel, reasoning out which button would activate the door, “If we were to…say…recruit some men from this facility…arm them with the armaments here…then our chances would be boosted.”

The other clone laughed again, “That’s stupid. You are foolish.”

“Am I?” Lucien glanced at the other clone, “If you helped us…you would be free.”

“Free?” the man was giggling, as if this was a joke.

“Yes,” Lucien looked at the man, resolving that he was quite clueless about this panel. It was lacking so many labels for so many buttons. He was not sure he could open it if he started pressing the wrong buttons.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” the other clone replied, “Attempts at escape are resolves to keep us sane. But no man would escape from here. Not for real. This place is the safest haven for clones. We’re the lucky ones who do not go to the front.”

“Then tell me this,” Lucien pulled out his disguise kit to drop the scout disguise. The other spy could see him now for what he was, a fellow spy clone. And now that he had Gaben’s appearance, he could let a wide toothy grin spread across his face. “What would clones from the front be doing here? What could I possibly gain from not only breaking into this place? But also arming its clones?”

“What _do_ you gain?” the other spy pushed off the glass and stepped a little closer to him, moving so that they were almost perfectly across from each other, “Why _are_ you here?” He looked so fascinated by Lucien, wanting to move closer for a closer look.

Lucien softened his smile, “I’m with some originals…and some fellow clones.”

“Originals?” the other spy inquired, with something like excitement in his voice.

“Tell me, how do you feel about war?” Lucien inquired.

“Gaben was always above war,” the other spy chuckled, “You would know that. Always play both sides, and you will always come out on top.”

Lucien shook his head, “No, not Gaben. You. How do _you_ feel about war?”

The other clone blinked at him, moving back half a step. He looked rather shocked by the question. It seemed nobody had ever challenged him like this. He was completely beside himself with how to answer that question.

“Because, we are here to start a war,” Lucien explained, “Then again, we didn’t start the war at Old Peaks, did we?”

“No…” the other clone shook his head slowly.

“But we’re going to end it,” Lucien explained, “This time we’re not fighting for them or their politics.”

Lucien found himself grinning with excitement. This must have been what awoke Aurick’s creativity, this sudden inspiration and drive to fight back. He thought this must have been such an exciting thought for Aurick when he realized that he could take down opposition with his own work.

“A…side for the clones?” the other clone inquired softly.

“Something like that, I believe,” Lucien shrugged, “Dr. Radlof is heading the efforts with technology that can make us unstoppable.”

“Hey!” a voice called from around the corner.

“Uh oh,” the other clone’s head swiveled towards the voice, “Sounds like patrol is here.”

“Fuck,” Lucien muttered as he reached for his watch.

“You had better get going,” the other clone insisted, “Else Skeeter will insist you be placed in here with us.”

“You don’t have to mind me,” Lucien muttered as he activated the invisibility cloak.

Just after he vanished from sight, a torch light came down from the end of the hall. He watched as the man proceeded towards him, searching with his light for anything out of place. Of course, he found that the glass had revealed the sleeping mercenaries and started turning on the glass so the occupants were not visible anymore.

Lucien stepped away from the glass that he had been next to. It would likely be one of the last places that the man would visit, so he could catch him by surprise there. He would more than likely be distracted by the clone inside, who looked like he was waiting. Perhaps he was curious to see what would happen.

When the man came closer, Lucien saw that it was none other than Skeeter. It had to be the original, with his aging hair, pudgy belly and aging face. He looked a lot like he could have fathered the clones.

“Hey, you’re up again? You should get more sleep,” Skeeter turned off his light to gesture with the torch towards the clone on the other side of the glass.

“Not much of a sleeper,” the other spy clone reluctantly shrugged.

“You know anything about the glass being turned off?” Skeeter inquired.

The other spy clone shrugged again, “What _would I_ know?”

“Well, I know I heard somebody,” Skeeter turned on his light again to shine it on the sleeping spies, “Everybody’s in there. So, who’s out here?”

Lucien could feel the creeping inevitability. Skeeter had to know what Gaben’s voice sounded like. Of any scout, he would know the best. More than that, he already sounded like he suspected somebody was on the outside of the glass. This encounter had to happen.

The other spy clone shrugged again, “I didn’t see anything.”

Lucien inched closer until he was in just the right spot to grab his target. He leaped at Skeeter’s back, quickly grabbing for his arms. He missed one arm and the man swung around the hit him in the head. He cried out but did not relent physically. He kept a hold of Skeeter’s other arm and struggled to gain control of the rest of him.

“Nice try! But not enough!” Skeeter put a foot up on the glass and shoved off of it, throwing his whole body weight against Lucien.

Lucien was slammed up against the other wall, struggling against being pinned by Skeeter’s weight. He pushed back but Skeeter kept pushing against him. He dug his elbow into Lucien’s ribs, using this opportunity to make it more difficult to breathe.

“What? You thought you could take _me_ on?” Skeeter taunted.

“I was not intending it,” Lucien took a breath, before he flung his head against Skeeter’s head.

Dazed, Skeeter moved away from Lucien. Lucien took the opportunity to grab control again. This time, he had one arm around the arm and the other around Skeeter’s neck. It was not as much control as he wanted, but it was enough to prevent him from using the other arm from doing anything. Though, he did throw his weight again, shoving Lucien up against the wall.

“Not your best day, pally!” Skeeter taunted as he thrust his body against Lucien again and again.

Each time the other man’s weight thrust against him, Lucien grunted. It was painful and hard to breathe. His head was feeling light from less oxygen. He began to panic as he searched for a way out.

“You shoulda stayed put, pal,” Skeeter reached back, clawing at Lucien’s hair, “What the? No mask?” Skeeter sounded completely shocked, and even faltered in the thrusting.

“No,” Lucien pushed off the wall and forced all of his weight into the man he was struggling with, slamming him against the other wall.

Skeeter lost no momentum, reaching forward to push off the wall. He did not hesitate to immediately shove Lucien’s back against a wall again. This time, he slammed harder.

“You shouldn’t have messed with me,” Skeeter grunted between each slam against Lucien’s body. All the while, Lucien could feel his grip loosening on the man’s body.

Suddenly, a sharp click made all movement stopped. Both of their heads turned. It was hard to see through the daze of barely breathing. Lucien’s eyes were slow to focus, but eventually they landed upon the form of a scout holding up a shotgun.

“Off the spy, nice and slow,” the clone named Skeeter said, gesturing with his gun for where he intended the original to move.

“Easy there,” Skeeter raised his hands and moved away from Lucien.

Lucien let him go, resting his body against the wall as he tried to catch his breath. He wondered how much longer he could have lasted if Skeeter had not shown up. He was fairly certain that the original Skeeter had gotten far better at fighting than he remembered.

“You don’t want to shoot me,” the original Skeeter said, hands still raised.

“No, no I don’t,” clone Skeeter admitted, “But I will if I have to.”

“Think about what you’re doing,” the original Skeeter pleaded with him, “You’ll get in a lot of trouble with the higher ups for this. I can only cover up so much of your misbehavior.”

Clone Skeeter turned his attention to Lucien, “You okay, man?”

Lucien nodded slowly as he tried to catch his breath. A sharp pain remained in his ribs. He wondered if something was fractured or worse. Either way, at least he could breathe now.

“It’s a good thing I found you,” clone Skeeter turned his attention back to the original.

“You guys shouldn’t be out here,” the original Skeeter insisted.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” clone Skeeter warned, “We’re on the war path. You’re getting in our way.”

Lucien straightened up and reached into his pocket for his cigarettes. He lit one up and took a deep puff of the stuff. It was so relieving that it was like his nerves just calmed down. He let the smoke out in a long sigh.

“Dr. Radlof is already here,” Lucien smoke as smoothly as he could with shaking hands and pain in his ribs, “And we’ll be taking what we need.”

“Wait…what?” original Skeeter blinked at him.

“So uh…” clone Skeeter reached into a pocket and pulled out a pistol, “Spy, I grabbed you something.”

Lucien turned and snatched the weapons as it was tossed to him. He took a moment to admire it, but only a moment. It was not too well crafted for beauty, meant for convenience of its use rather than appearance. It was nice to have a familiar weapon in his hand though.

“You clones are getting way too out of hand,” original Skeeter said quietly, shaking his head.

“Oh shut up,” clone Skeeter rolled his eyes, “Last time we were here, you were gonna roll over and beg forgiveness to what you thought was a medic clone because you feel guilty about something you did to the real doc!”

“What? I- huh?” original Skeeter looked very confused.

“Yea, you were pretty pathetic,” clone Skeeter laughed, before looking to Lucien, “What should we do with this guy?”

Lucien looked to the spy clone on the other side of the door. The man was studying the scene curiously, though he had not moved from his place. He just stood there, watching pensively.

“How do you open the doors?” he asked the other spy clone.

“The big red button opens the door,” the other spy clone stared at him pensively.

“Thank you,” Lucien pressed the button, opening the door to the spies’ room.

“No wait! Don’t open that!” original Skeeter exclaimed in a panic, “You don’t want to open that one!”

“Relax,” Lucien held his gun to point it at the original Skeeter, “I think I do.” He gestured towards the door, so the original Skeeter slowly stepped backwards and into the room. He turned his gaze to the other spy clone, “Are you coming out?”

“I was under the impression he would be trapped in here with us?” the other spy clone raised an eyebrow.

“Wake the others,” Lucien ordered.

“Wait…” clone Skeeter looked around, “Are all these windows…rooms?”

“Press the glass button,” Lucien pointed with his free hand to one of the window panels.

“Press the what?” clone Skeeter looked at him with confusion in his eyes.

“Press the button that says glass,” Lucien reiterated. He turned his attention back to the room of spies. The three sleeping spies were roused from their beds and brought out to join them in the hall. They were barely awake enough to understand what was going on.

“Whoa…” clone Skeeter mused at the changing glass, “It can change color!”

“Yes, it can,” the spy clone Lucien spoke with before pressed the big red button to close the door. He turned to Lucien. “What now?”

“Now?” Lucien paused to glance at clone Skeeter.

“Hold up, once we release all of these guys, we’ll regroup with the others,” Skeeter insisted as he pressed buttons to open doors.

“Where are the others?” Lucien inquired.

“Stockpiling weapons,” Skeeter answered as he pressed each and every door button.

“But I haven’t turned off the security,” Lucien frowned.

“What?” Skeeter spun around to look at him.

“I didn’t find the security room,” Lucien explained.

“It’s hidden,” one of the spy clones yawned, “They don’t want us finding out where it is so we don’t break out.”

“Welp,” Skeeter opened the last door, “I guess it’s time to make a break for it.”

“Um…” Lucien looked around as tired mercenaries slowly came out of their rooms, “Skeeter? How are we transporting all of these clones?”

Skeeter paused, mouth still agape in the middle of a word, “Good question…”


	9. Midnight Truck Parade

Weapons piled up in the back of a pickup. The company logos decorated the trucks lined up and ready to go, as men climbed in. It felt a little like deja vu for Aurick. Was this not the same scenario as when they fled the base in the desert? It felt very familiar as he watched men quickly hop in and start up the vehicles.

He hurried past them all, trotting into the open air of the street. The street lights gave plenty of view of the two vehicles they originally came in. They almost distracted from more distant lights though. Those lights were accompanied with blaring noises, so they were hard to miss.

“Doc!” Brian barked.

“Time to go!” Aurick clambered into the passenger seat of the respawn truck. They could wait for everything to do with the respawn later, he thought.

“Where’s Skeeter? And Lucien?” Brian asked hastily.

“Probably in one of the many other trucks,” the hair on Aurick’s arms stood on end as the sirens drew nearer and nearer, “Just go!”

Brian hesitated before he started up the truck and put it into drive. The living quarters truck was still shut off for now, apparently inactive. He wondered if anybody else had come out this far yet.

“The other truck ain’t started! We shouldn’t go nowhere,” Brian insisted.

“This is the respawn,” Aurick put a hand on Brian’s shoulder, “If it gets destroyed, we’re all good as dead. We rely on you to keep this thing alive.”

“Wait…but…” Brian grunted as he tried to argue. The vehicle was slowly rolling past the living quarters truck as the scout debated.

“We do not have time. This is the most important vehicle,” Aurick insisted, “Now go!”

Finally, Brian stepped on the gas and the vehicle lurched forward. He clipped the seatbelt buckle as he sat back. They pulled away down the street. Several trucks immediately pulled out onto the street and began to follow. Aurick peered over his shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse of somebody. He reminded himself that it was unlikely that he would even be able to tell the difference between anybody at a distance.

They picked up speed, as a parade of trucks followed along behind. Brian kept glancing in the side view mirrors as he picked up speed. The nerves were very apparent.

Aurick kept his eyes on the road, wary that Brian might miss something. The last thing they needed was to get into an accident due to incompetence. If this vehicle wrecked, then he would lose out on all of the work it took to put this together.

After a while, he could hear distant gunshots. His hackles stood on end as he listened. He was not sure what was going on in the back of their little parade. He only hoped that they were winning. He hoped that their comrades were going to make it out.

He reached over to pat Brian’s shoulder. It seemed only fitting to offer the kind of comfort that he needed for himself. “Just keep driving, everything’ll be fine.”

“I know,” Brian huffed a sigh, “It’s just…not knowing where they are. They were okay when you came out, right?”

Aurick nodded, “Of course. I just came out ahead of them to get this truck out of the way.”

“How’d you know those sirens were coming? I couldn’t hear them,” Brian asked.

“A good guess,” Aurick sighed as he recalled the hasty way in which Skeeter and Lucien had explained that the security system was not turned off.

“Do you…do you think they’ll be okay?” Brian asked. The worry was evident in his shaky voice.

“Brian, they are mercenaries. They lived on the frontlines for years,” Aurick assured him, “They’ll be fine.”

“Okay…okay,” Brian took a deep breath, “You’re right.”

Silence fell over the cab of the vehicle. As the silence became denser, outside noises became more apparent. The distant shots of guns snapped over the rumble of engines. It was clear that a fire fight had already started, though it was quite distant.

“What if…one of them was killed…and they respawned?” Brian asked, gesturing towards the back of the truck.

“You’re right,” Aurick admitted, glancing over his shoulder towards the back, “We need to pull over.”

“What?” Brian sounded surprised.

“We need to pull this truck to a stop. If anyone has respawned, they need to be able to get out,” Aurick explained, “So, pull over.”

“What? Are you crazy?” Brian panicked, “You said we gotta protect this thing!” Brian’s grip tightened on the steering wheel.

“Yes, but the enemy doesn’t even know what it is,” Aurick mulled on the thought, “They wouldn’t know we respawned if it happened right in front of them. They’ll think it’s just more clones.”

“More clones? But…but…” Brian stammered for an excuse.

“It’s alright to be afraid,” Aurick put a hand on the scout’s shoulder, in an attempt to calm him down, “But you need to face them head on. We need to face them. We need to handle this before they follow us into the desert.”

Brian’s adam’s apple bounced as he swallowed. He slowed the truck to a halt regardless. As soon as the wheels stopped moving, Aurick hopped out of the truck and hurried to the back. He threw open the doors, half expecting somebody to be inside. He was almost surprised that there was nobody there.

He turned around just in time to see somebody clad in dark armor, with a shield over his face. He had a gun raised, holding it as if it stood between him and death. Aurick was slightly startled by the appearance of the man, but then stopped to study the type of gun he was carrying. He was fairly certain it was some form of semi-automatic, but he was not entirely sure.

“Put your hands in the air and cooperate calmly,” the man said with shaky breath.

“I’m surprised,” was all Aurick could say.

“What?” the man’s shield muffled his voice a bit.

“I was certain the politicians would be using this as excuse enough to slaughter clones and originals,” Aurick barked a laugh.

“No one’s getting slaughtered tonight,” the man said, with a wary bit of uncertainty in his voice.

“Sure,” Aurick’s eyes darted around in search of others. There seemed to be nobody near them. Even the vehicle behind them was empty, as the people who were running it before had hopped out to run out and fight.

“You got a number or something?” the man asked him.

“What?” Aurick gave the man a perplexed look. It took him a moment before the memorized serial digits came to mind.

“You guys are all numbered, right?” the man asked.

Instead of answering, Aurick stepped into the man’s space, putting himself out of the gun barrel’s range. He slammed an elbow into his ribcage and grabbed the gun. The man began to shout and struggle, as they began pushing and pulling for the weapon. Aurick got his leg around the other man’s leg and gave him a full body push. As the man fell back, he clung to the gun with both hands. The two of them struggled, one down and one standing.

“Aurick! Aaaaurick!” a voice called in the distance. He ignored the sound, trying desperately to wrangle the gun out of the enemy’s hand.

The man struck out with his foot, catching Aurick off guard. He grunted, but did not relent with his grip on the gun. He dared not let the man keep a hold of it. He needed it. He needed to be able to defend himself.

His thoughts were cut off by a loud bang and a pain in his head. Suddenly, the world was dark. Suddenly, he was miserable. Suddenly, he was trapped in inky blackness and pain. All was uncertain as he tried to reason out what had happened.

_“So,” Lucien took a deep breath as he ran his fingers over his chest. The cavity that had been opened was now completely sealed shut. “What now?”_

_“Now?” Aurick raised an eyebrow at the spy._

_“You have managed to implant the devices into each of us,” Lucien explained, “What about yourself? Do you think you are so infallible?”_

_Aurick could not hold back the laughter that spouted from his mouth. It erupted forth and he tilted back. He rubbed the wetness from his eye as he turned to the last two devices. One was for Brian, in case he changed his mind. The other was for himself, ready to be fitted to his heart._

_“I’m ready,” he said, lifting the device to show it off, “I don’t suppose you have some time to spare?”_

_Lucien looked at him quizzically as he buttoned up his shirt. There was a question in his eyes but silence on his lips. The unspoken inquiry for clarification sat heavily in the air._

_Aurick took a breath as he placed the device on the surgical table. He picked up the antiseptic and began cleaning the tools he had used on the others. Having already done this several times before, his hands moved tiredly and methodically._

_“In my current state, I am not capable of performing my own procedure without error,” Aurick explained._

_You need rest,” Lucien insisted, raising his hands, “I am surprised that you managed to do all of our procedures in a day.”_

_“Ja,” Aurick sighed, “And I need assistance for my own.”_

_“You need sleep,” Lucien insisted again, “Get rest. You’ll feel more ready tomorrow.”_

_“The same approach as before?” Lucien chuckled as he cleaned each tool and set it on a clean towel, “I thought you would have learned by now.”_  
 _“I_ have _learned,” Lucien argued, “I have learned that you do not respond well to demands.”_

_Aurick frowned at him, “You make me sound like some animal to be studied.”_

_“I have learned that you pour yourself into your work,” Lucien went on without missing a beat, “You don’t regard your own health in the matter. You just do it. And you need not to be pushed around…just gently reminded that your health is as important as your patients’ wellbeing.”_

_“Ah,” Aurick mostly ignored this as he went about his cleaning work, “You think so?”_

_“I know so,” Lucien insisted._

_“Sleep won’t change the fact that I cannot do this alone,” Aurick sighed as he placed the last cleaned instrument on the clean towel._

_“Sleep on it,” Lucien insisted, “Tomorrow we’ll discuss how to go about your-”_

_Suddenly, Aurick found himself lying down against the table. His back was bare against the cold surface. His bare chest was opened up. Deft fingers worked carefully with a knife, though the darting eyes made Aurick grow more and more wary of his surgeon._

_“Pinch that,” Aurick gestured with tweezers._

_“What?” Lucien asked, just a moment before a spray of blood hit the shirt he was wearing._

_“You hit the artery there,” Aurick grabbed the pincers to do it himself. His hand felt so shaky and unsteady. He was nervous now, as pain wracked his body. “Hold these,” he passed the pincers off to Lucien’s hand and reached for the device, “We need to make this quick. I’ll be bleeding out.”_

_“You are already bleeding out,” Lucien spoke with hasty words as his tongue flicked over his lips._

_“Right, right,” Aurick did his best to angle the device with his heart, “Give this a push, I have no leverage from this angle.”_

_“Right,” Lucien’s tongue licked his lip again, as he leaned down to push up on the device._

_Aurick tensed. His entire body stilled. Even his lungs no longer worked, as he felt the intense pain plunge through his body. As the hand left, he shivered, feeling a wave of relief. It was over and his body could feel the release of pain escaping at last._

_“Alright, now…” Lucien looked around. His hands were shaking more than before, “What now?”_

_“The gun,” Aurick raised his hand and pointed. The one device this facility afforded them was attached to the ceiling of this room. Detached it would be useless, disconnected from its power source. Otherwise, it was almost out of the juice it needed to heal the procedures. “Turn it up to eleven.”_

_Lucien did as instructed. Slowly the dial turned up and the rays that connected to Aurick’s body grew brighter. He took deep breaths as the cavity sealed up. The pain subsided, leaving behind only the memory of the procedure._

_“Never ask me to do that again,” Lucien began trying to get the mess of blood off of his shirt._

_“Well, if it was done right the first time, I won’t have to,” Aurick slowly rose, swinging his legs off the makeshift surgical table. He could practically feel the shifting of blood in his body as he weakly rose._

_Lucien huffed, “I am surprised.”_

_“At what?” Aurick reached slowly for his shirt._

_“You’re simply not a man who trusts,” Lucien explained, “And if there is anyone you distrust most, you discriminate against me above all else.”_

_Aurick did a double take, whipping around to look at the spy. He was still trying to get the blood out of his shirt. The stark red plastered against off-white was never going to come out of the threads. Still, the man persisted, as if he had no idea that blood could stain. He did not raise his eyes or even turn towards Aurick. He was turned away, focusing on his shirt._

_“To what effect do you want me to say?” Aurick asked._

_Lucien flinched and gave him a perplexed look at the convoluted choice of words. He blinked at him, perhaps contemplating what to say. Surely the spy clone would easily understand these words. Aurick would not be convinced that Lucien did not understand the question._

_“I don’t know,” Lucien paused before he said, “Just…acknowledge the truth?”_

_“What truth do you want to hear?” Aurick carefully pulled his shirt on. He felt like he needed to be gentle with his body, despite the medigun fixing him up._

_“I want you to admit what we both know,” Lucien turned his head to look Aurick in the eye._

_Aurick furrowed his brow, “What do we both know?”_

_“That you do not trust spies,” Lucien replied, “Least of all myself. I just want you to admit that.”_

_Aurick pursed his lips in thought. After a few moments, he shook his head, “No.”_

_“No?” Lucien blinked at him._

_“I just laid on this table going under the knife,” Aurick explained._

_“Yes, so did everybody else,” Lucien replied, unceremoniously spreading blood over his shirt._

_“And I trusted you to do it,” Aurick stated._

_Lucien’s head whipped around to look at him again. He looked stunned or perhaps perplexed. Perhaps he had not considered this operation to be a form of trust._

_“I went under the knife,” Aurick explained, “And I trusted you with the blade.”_

_“Not my finest moment,” Lucien looked away nervously._

_“You’ve already told me how you feel about me,” Aurick said._

_Lucien glanced around, eyes darting across the table, “You’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re tired. You should get some rest first. You might not say what you mean.”_

_“I will say what I mean,” Aurick argued, rising to his feet. He kept a hand on the table to remain steady as his body’s water weight shifted. “I’m not entirely sure what I feel about you. I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll never know. Maybe I’m too stupid to figure it out.”_

_“Don’t say that,” Lucien protested with a soft tone._

_“No, I mean it,” Aurick argued. He put a hand on Lucien’s shoulder to steady himself. “You and I are changed men. We are not the same as things were…when you were a new clone…when I remembered everything. And I’ve changed since those trucks left the base. We’ve both changed, I think. And…maybe it’s for the worse or the better…I’m not sure. But…I_ do _trust you, Lucien.”_

_Lucien swallowed, “That means a lot coming from you.”_

Aurick opened his eyes and looked around. It was dark. It was far too dark, but he knew he was alive. He was breathing and he could feel his body. He took a step forward and his boot hit the familiar clang of metal. He reached out and felt the metal against his palm. He balled his fist and gave the door a bang.

The door swung open and a shaking scout looked up at him. Brian had his hat eschew and he was hugging a shotgun. Behind him, a body laid dead.

“Stay with the truck,” Aurick ordered, “We have work to do!”

“Uh…uh…okay…but…” Brian stammered out nervously.

Aurick hopped out of the truck, “You already know how to use that. Just stay at the ready.”

“But what does that mean?” Brian pleaded.

“Stay in the truck!” Aurick gestured at Brian as he grabbed the gun off the body.


End file.
